Four hundred and eighty political hopefuls with legal trouble have been excluded from running in the October elections by the Conservative Party, reported the newspaper El Espectador.
According to the newspaper, Conservative Party President Jose Dario Salazar announced that the candidates were denied electoral eligibility because of their alleged involvement in illegal activities, such as crimes against the public administration, sex crimes and drug trafficking.
Colombian Interior Minister German Vargas Lleras has been leading the crusade against candidates in the upcoming election who have either been convicted of crimes or have ongoing criminal proceedings against them.
The minister obtained lists from the Prosecutor General’s Office and distributed them to the heads of political parties, who in turn excluded the suspects from the elections.
