TITLE IV. On Democratic Participation and Political Parties
Chapter I. On the Forms of Democratic Participation
Article 103
The following are the people’s means of participating in the exercise of their sovereignty: the vote, the plebiscite, the referendum, the popular consultation, the open town council meeting, the legislative initiative, and the recall of officials. An Act shall regulate these matters. The State shall contribute to the organization, promotion, and guidance of professional, civic, trade union, community, youth, charitable, or nongovernmental public-purpose associations, without prejudicing their authority so that they may constitute democratic means of representation in the various organs of participation, agreement, control, and oversight of the public actions that they undertake.
Article 104
The President of the Republic, with the approval of the ministers and the prior approval of the Senate of the Republic, may consult the people on matters of great national importance. The people’s decision shall be binding. Such consultation may not coincide with another election.
Article 105
Upon the fulfillment of the requirements and formalities prescribed by the general statute of the territorial organization and in the cases determined by the latter, the governors and mayors as the case may be shall be entitled to hold popular consultations to decide issues falling under the jurisdiction of their respective department or municipality.
Article 106
Upon the fulfillment of the requirements that an Act prescribes, the people of the territorial entities may present bills concerning issues falling under the jurisdiction of the respective public entity, which is obliged to implement them; decide on questions/issues (disposiciones) of interest to the community on the initiative of the authority or corresponding entity or by not less of ten percent (10%) of the citizens enrolled in the respective electoral roll; and elect representatives to meetings of the public service entities within the respective territorial entity.
Chapter II. On Political Parties and Political Movements
Article 107
All citizens are guaranteed the right to establish, organize, and promote political parties and movements and the freedom to join them or to withdraw from them.
In no case shall citizens be allowed to belong simultaneously to more than one political party or movement with legal personality.
The political parties and movements shall organize themselves democratically and shall have as their guiding principles transparency, objectivity, morality, the equality of sexes, and the duty to present and disseminate their political programs.
In order to take decisions or to select their own candidates or coalition candidates they may hold popular, internal or inter-party ballots which may or may not coincide with elections to public bodies, in accordance with the provisions of their by-laws and the statute.
In the case of popular ballots the rules relating to campaign financing and advertising and access to the State media which govern the ordinary elections shall apply. Those who participate in the ballot of a party or political movement or in inter-party elections may not register for another one in the same electoral process. The result of the ballots shall be binding.
The leadership of political parties and movements must promote processes of internal democratization and the strengthening of the principle of formation of factions in public bodies (régimen de bancadas).
The political parties or movements must assume responsibility for any violation or contravention of the rules which govern their organization, functioning and funding and also for promoting candidates elected to posts or Public Bodies by popular election who have been or were sentenced during the exercise of the functions for which they have been promoted for crimes concerning links to illegal armed groups and drug trafficking activities, crimes against the system of democratic participation or crimes against humanity by a sentence which is enforceable in Colombia or abroad.
The political parties and movements must also assume responsibility for promoting candidates for non-elective offices or Public Bodies if they have been or were sentenced during the exercise of the functions for which they were a candidate for crimes concerning links to illegal armed groups and drug-trafficking activities committed prior to the backlog of the party or movement by a sentence which is enforceable in Colombia or abroad.
The sanctions may include fines, the repayment of the public funds obtained based on the share of the votes received and even the loss of legal personality. When the sentence concerns persons who have been elected to posts with a single office-holder (cargo uninominal) the party or movement which has promoted the sentenced person shall not present candidates for the subsequent elections in that constituency. If the elections are less than 18 months away, they may not present a list of (three) candidates, so that the nominating body is free to choose the replacement.
The party leadership which is shown to have acted without the necessary care and diligence in the exercise of the rights and duties which are conferred upon them by virtue of the legal personality of the party shall also be subject to sanctions determined by statute.
Social organizations are also guaranteed the right to demonstrate and to participate in political events.
A member of a Public Body who decides to stand for another party in the next election must renounce his/her seat at least twelve (12) months prior to the opening day of the registration period.
Transitional Paragraph 1
Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 34, the members of popularly elected Collegiate Bodies shall exceptionally be authorized to register with a party different from that which has promoted them within a period of two months following the entry into force of this Legislative Act, without having to renounce their seat or infringing the ban on double membership.
Transitional Paragraph 2
The National Government or the members of Congress shall present a draft status Act which implements this Article before August 10, 2009.
The bill shall be accompanied by a declaration of urgency and shall be discussed in a joint session of Congress, and may be the object of a declaration insisting on the urgency of its adoption if necessary. The delays for the prior review of enforceability of the draft status Act by the Constitutional Court shall be reduced by half.
Article 108
The National Election Commission shall grant legal personality to political parties and movements and relevant groups of citizens. They may acquire it by obtaining no less than three percent (3%) of the votes validly cast in the national territory in the elections of the House of Representatives or Senate. They shall lose it if they do not obtain this percentage in the elections to the same Public Bodies. This does not apply to the special regime enacted by statute for the minority constituencies, in which it shall suffice to have obtained representation in Congress.
Political parties and movements shall also lose their legal personality if they do hold at least every two (2) years a party congress which allows their members to influence the most important decisions on their political organization.
The political parties and movements with recognized legal personality may register their candidates in the elections. To this effect, the said registration must be guaranteed by the party’s or political movement’s respective legal representative or by the person delegated by the latter.
Social movements and relevant groups of citizens may also register candidates.
Each registration of a disqualified candidate shall be cancelled by the National Election Commission in accordance with the requirements of due process.
The by-laws of political parties and movements shall regulate the issues pertaining to their internal disciplinary regime. The members of the Public Bodies elected for the same party or political movement or citizen movement shall act within these bodies as a faction (bancada) in the terms defined by statute and in accordance with the decisions democratically adopted by them.
The internal by-laws of the political parties and movements shall determine the matters of conscience to which this regime does not apply and may establish sanctions for the disregard of their guidelines by members of the parliamentary groups which shall comprise various levels up to the expulsion from the party and may include the loss of voting rights as member of Congress, Deputy, Councilor or alderman/alderwoman (edil) for the remainder of the term for which the person concerned was elected.
Transitional Paragraph 1
For the elections to Congress which take place in 2010, the percentage to which the first section of this Article refers shall be two percent (2%); the requirement of party membership one year prior to registration mentioned in section 8 shall not apply.
Article 109
The State shall contribute to the financing of political parties and movements with legal personality, in accordance with the relevant statute.
The election campaigns conducted by candidates put forward by parties and movements with legal personality and by relevant citizen groups which put candidates on the ballot shall partly be funded with state resources.
An Act shall determine the percentage of votes necessary to qualify for the right to such funding.
The expenses which parties, movements, relevant citizen groups or candidates may incur in election campaigns, as well as the maximum amount of private contributions may also be limited in accordance with the applicable statute.
A percentage of this funding shall be directed to parties and movements with effective legal personality and relevant citizen groups which put forward candidates prior to the election or ballot in accordance with the conditions and guarantees determined by statue and with the authorization of the National Election Commission.
Campaigns for the election of the President of the Republic shall have access to a maximum of advertising space and institutional space on radio and television paid for by the State, for candidates of those parties, movements and relevant citizen groups whose electoral bids comply with the requirements of seriousness determined by the relevant Act for such purposes.
In the elections following the entry into force of this Legislative Act, violations of the campaign spending limits shall, if duly proved, be sanctioned with the loss of the mandate or public office. An Act shall determine the other effects resulting from the violation of this provision.
Parties, movements and candidates shall publicly account for the amount, the sources and the use of their funds.
It is prohibited for political parties and movements and relevant citizen groups to receive funding for electoral campaigns from foreign individuals or corporations. No type of private funding may have objectives affecting the democratic or public order.
Paragraph
The annual funding of political parties and movements with legal personality shall rise, at a minimum, to two point seven times of the amount contributed in the year 2003, maintaining its value over time.
The amount of campaign funding of political parties and movements with legal personality shall be, at the least, three times that contributed in the 1999-2002 period in constant pesos of 2003. This includes the transportation costs on election day and the cost of postal franchises currently funded.
Ballots of parties and movements which opt for this mechanism shall receive funding on the basis of the shares of the votes obtained, maintaining for such purpose the value in constant pesos in force at the time of approval of the present Legislative Act.
Transitional Paragraph
The National Government or the members of Congress shall present a draft status Act which implements this Article before August 10, 2009.
The bill shall be accompanied by a declaration of urgency and shall be discussed in a joint session of Congress, and may be the object of a declaration insisting on the urgency of its adoption if necessary. The delays for the prior review of enforceability of the draft status Act by the Constitutional Court shall be reduced by half.
Article 110
Those fulfilling public functions are prohibited from making any contribution whatsoever to the parties, movements, or candidates or to induce others to do so, with the exceptions established by statute. Noncompliance with any of these prohibitions shall be cause for dismissal from office or loss of mandate.
Article 111
The political parties and movements having legal capacity have the right to use media of communication making use of the electromagnetic spectrum at all times in accordance with the relevant statute. The latter shall also determine the conditions and the form in which the duly registered parties, political movements and candidates have access to said media.
Chapter III. On the Status of the Opposition
Article 112
The political parties and movements with legal personality which declare themselves to be in opposition to the government may freely formulate their critical stance towards the latter and plan and develop alternative policies. For these purposes, they enjoy the following rights: access to official information and documentation, with the constitutional and legal restrictions; the use of the means of social communication of the State or of those that use the electromagnetic spectrum, in accordance with the representation obtained in the immediately preceding Congressional elections; and the right to reply in the same media.
Minority parties and movements with legal personality shall have the right to participate in the executive committees of the collegiate bodies, in accordance with their representation in them.
A statutory law shall regulate the matter in its entirety.
The candidate who follows the number of votes of the elected President and Vice President of the Republic, Governor of a Department, District Mayor, or Municipal Mayor will have the personal right to occupy a seat in the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Departmental Assembly, the District and Municipal Council, respectively, during the period of the corresponding corporation .
The seats assigned in the Senate of the Republic and in the House of Representatives will be added to those foreseen in the Articles 171 and 176. The other seats will not increase the number of members of such institutions.
In the case of rejection of a seat in the public corporations of the territorial entities, the seat will be assigned according to the general rule of seat assignment foreseen in the Article 263.
Transitional Paragraph
The designation of seats mentioned in this Article will not apply to elections conducted in the year 2015.
