Colombia’s State Council suspends Petro’s labor referendum – Colombia News

The electoral chamber of Colombia’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, suspended a referendum on labor reforms that had been decreed by President Gustavo Petro.

The court suspended the decree that called the referendum because “it was issued without the prior favorable opinion of the Senate of the Republic, as provided in Article 104 of the Constitution.”

ARTICLE 104: The President of the Republic, with the signature of all the ministers and with the prior favorable opinion of the Senate of the Republic, may consult the people on decisions of national importance. The decision of the people shall be binding. The consultation may not be held concurrently with another election.

Colombian constitution

The court ordered to suspend the electoral proceedings in response to a lawsuit by opposition senators who claimed that Petro violated the constitution when he called the referendum despite a Senate vote against it.

Consequently, the government has claimed, the Senate vote was null and void, and the president issued the referendum decree legally unless and until the Constitutional Court says otherwise.

The Constitutional Court ratifies or rejects every signed off law or decree that comes out of the President’s Office.

In the case of a referendum, the Constitutional Court would have to wait until after the people have spoken unless a lower court decision that challenges procedures is appealed, according to former National Electoral Council magistrate Luis Guillermo Velez, who has been sympathetic to the government.

A Bogota court said earlier this month that the Senate “violated due process” in the vote that rejected the referendum and ordered to reopen the debate, which has apparently been ignored by Senate president Efrain Cepeda.

Court orders Colombia’s senate to reopen labor referendum debate

In a post on social media platform X, Perez said that the State Council decision “is an usurpation of functions and seriously violates the institutional framework.”

The controversial State Council ruling comes a day after the Senate approved much of the labor reform sought by the government.

Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said that the government will revoke the referendum if this referendum if Senate version of the labor reform is upheld by the House of Representatives in a conciliatory vote.