Regional Governance Activity – Strengthening Electoral Corruption Controls

The initiative, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), focused on preventing electoral fraud and improving the capacity of Colombian institutions to investigate and sanction electoral crimes. The activity adopted a two-pronged approach to prevent electoral fraud, providing support to Colombian entities with direct jurisdiction over investigations to prevent fraudulent registration of identity documents and supporting entities with direct jurisdiction for disqualifying ineligible candidates running for local offices. Technical assistance was also provided to the Government of Colombia (GOC) to investigate ties between criminal networks and political candidates, to deter state cooptation through illicit funding and irregular influence over office holders. The National Electoral Council (CNE), Office of the Inspector General (PGN), Attorney General's Office (FGN), and Ministry of Interior (MOI) were identified as key institutions responsible for organizing and upholding free and fair elections. RGA supported these institutions in the October 2015 pre-electoral period, providing management support, legal opinions, and political context analysis to strengthen their capacity to investigate and sanction electoral crimes. The CNE received support to substantiate files and provide legal and evidentiary analysis to support irregular voter registration and ineligible candidate rulings, leading to the revocation of 1,400,000 documents used in irregular voter registration out of 4,000,000 identity documents reviewed. RGA also supported the FGN in analyzing historical and political context documents, reports prepared by civil society organizations, and open and private sources with information of interest, providing new analytical perspectives to supplement the political and historical context analysis related to links between organized crime and political candidates. The activity focused on pursuing two electoral crimes, illegal voter registration and fraud in the form of ineligible candidates on the election ballot. RGA hired seven lawyers to aid CNE magistrates in substantiating, investigating, ruling, and annulling atypical registration of identity documents that did not coincide with the electoral census of a specific municipality. These irregular movements were identified through a crosscheck of information between the CNE and the National Registry. The work of RGA consultants aimed to help overcome the weakness of these institutions, providing management support, legal opinions, and political context analysis to strengthen their capacity to investigate and sanction electoral crimes. The activity sought to generate credibility and trust in GOC institutions responsible for organizing and upholding free and fair elections, ultimately contributing to the improvement of electoral processes in Colombia.