Court orders Colombia’s senate to reopen labor referendum debate – Colombia News

A Bogota court said that the president of Colombia’s Senate, Efrain Cepeda of the Conservative Party, violated due legislative process and must reopen the debate on President Gustavo Petro’s sunk referendum on labor reforms.

The ruling is a major defeat for Cepeda and the traditional political parties, who accused Petro of being a “dictator” trying to carry out a coup d’état for refusing to accept the Senate’s disputed “no” to his referendum.

“It’s a coup d’état”: Petro’s labor referendum draws ire of Colombia’s opposition parties

The president had already announced that he issue a decree to call the referendum, claiming that Cepeda’s “fraud” rendered the Senate vote null and void.

A judge has just upheld our right to a referendum. He determined that there was fraud in the Senate and ordered to repeat the vote in the next 48 hours.

Gustavo Petro

In the ruling, the Bogota civil court “orders Cepeda to, within 48 hours following notification of this sentence, resolve the appeal filed” by coalition Senator Maria Jose Pizarro “related to the closing of the vote for the approval or not of a referendum.”

Justice has pronounced itself and has proven us right: the voting process of the Popular Consultation was absolutely irregular and arbitrary. The president of the Congress violated my fundamental rights and those of the Colombian people.

Senator Maria Jose Pizarro

According to Pizarro, the ruling implies that the senate missed its 30-day deadline to decide on the referendum.

Consequently, Petro can legally decree the referendum as announced earlier this week, said the senator.

Cepeda, who had led the opposition against Petro and his progressive opposition, did not immediately respond to the court ruling.

The referendum seeks to force Congress to approve a labor reform that had controversially been shelved by the Senate’s social policy commission, which is dominated by the conservative opposition.

In its attempt to tank Petro’s referendum, the Senate revived the reform.

The government and its coalition in Congress claimed that the revived reform included new elements that effectively worsened the rights of Colombian workers.

Labor unions and social organizations have been organizing strikes and assemblies in support of Petro’s referendum.