President Alvaro Uribe gave his stamp of approval for the reinstatement of Valle Governor Juan Carlos Abadia to office, newspaper El Tiempo reported Friday.
“With this [decree], Mr. Juan Carlos Abadia returns to his duties as head of the government of Valle del Cauca, from the date of issuance of the decree in reference,” Uribe ordered.
The decree issued by Uribe in effect approved the decision made last week by the department’s judiciary council to nullify Abadia’s ten-year ban from office because the investigation and trial of Abadia was not conducted in accordance with due process.
In May, Colombia’s inspector general removed Abadia as governor and banned him from public office for ten years for illegally supporting the Conservative Party primary campaign of candidate Andres Felipe Arias.
According the the charges, Abadia, “used his position as governor of Valle to allow the presence of a presidential candidate [Arias] in a meeting with more than twenty municipal mayors that was suppose to be for official purposes,” which was “a clear example of non-objective behavior, that was biased and favored one candidate.”
According to Colombian law, elected officials are not allowed to interfere in or influence elections in any way, meaning that they are barred from openly supporting or opposing candidates.
