After six hours of deliberation, Colombia’s Supreme Court on Thursday failed to elect a new national prosecutor general for the fourteenth time in a year, because they could not reach a consensus on which candidate should fill the position.
Margarita Cabello Blanco continues to lead the vote as court’s preferred candidate, winning eleven votes this time round. She was followed by Marco Antonio Velilla with six votes and Jorge Anibal Gomez with three.
The election failed yet again because none of the candidates managed to obtain the sixteen votes required to elect a prosecutor general.
The ongoing saga regarding the prosecutor general’s election led Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to suggest that the president of the nation should choose the person appropriate for the position.
Uribe came under fire for proposing the declaration of a state of exception, with critics accusing him of suggesting the declaration in order to make an executive order to appoint a new prosecutor general.
Executive-judiciary relations have become increasingly strained under outgoing President Uribe’s administration, with the Colombian leader lashing out at decisions made by the courts, causing the Supreme Court to cancel a scheduled meeting with the president.
However President-elect Juan Manuel Santos met with top judges last week and committed to respecting the autonomy of the courts.
