Colombia finally has a status of opposition | Policy

President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday sanctioned the law creates the Statute of the Opposition in Colombia, after the initiative was approved at the Congress of the Republic via the "fast track".

With the presidential sanction, the new Statute of the Opposition is finally born to the legal life, after 25 years of mandate in the Constitution of 1991. Although it is a constitutional mandate, the Congress only approved it on April 25, 2017.

In fact, 11 attempts were made and they failed for 26 years, until Congress, in the standards they approved by fast track, in execution of the Havana Peace Agreements, dealt with the Statute of the Opposition.

In execution of this law, for the first time in our history, the formula lost in the last Re presidential race, Gustavo Petro and Angela María Robledo, are entitled to a seat in the Senate of the Republic and a place in the House of Representatives, respectively.

Provisions ]

As summarized by the National Government, with the new Statute the opposition will have, inter alia, the right to:

– 20-minute space on the day of the installation of the sessions of the Congress of the Republic, by the President of the Republic

– an additional 5% for the National Fund for political financing of parties and movements that declare themselves in the opposition.

– They will be able to counter the presidential addresses in the next 2 days and in the same terms as they would have been made. This right can be exercised up to three times a year.

– A position on the board of directors of the plenary sessions of public corporations.

– 30 minutes per month in the media. It will be the electoral authority that will define the distribution.

– Right of Reply to Serious and Obvious Distortions or Public Attacks by the President of the Republic, Ministers, Governors, Mayors, Secretaries of the Office, Directors or Officers of Decentralized Entities and Other Highs official.

-They will have at least one of the positions on the board of the plenary of the Congress.

– Determine the agenda of the plenary session and the standing committees, three times during each term of the Congress

– Must be published amendments or additions to its articles presented in the trial of the construction of these multi-year plans and members of Congress, deputies and councilors of the same.

– Those who are part of opposition movements can not be appointed to government positions, not even in the 12 months following his resignation from the political movement.

– The action for the protection of the rights of the opposition is created, which must be resolved by the electoral authority in terms similar to guardianship.

What are you looking for in the law of opposition?

The new Statute of the Opposition, which begins operating in Colombia after the election of Ivan Duque, states that whoever will get the second round in the presidential elections will have a seat at Senate and its vice-presidential formula, in the House of Representatives.

This statute aims at strengthening those who lead the opposition, represented in those who get the second vote in the presidential election, and who will now have a place in Congress, as a demonstration of the balance of power that should govern in any democracy.

According to this norm, the movements and political parties must declare themselves opposed to the government before the National Electoral Council, once the elected president, Iván Duque, inaugurated.