Political Constitution of Colombia (1991)

The Senate of the Republic shall be composed of one hundred members elected in one nationwide constituency.

There shall be an additional two senators elected in a special national constituency for indigenous communities.

Colombian citizens who happen to be or reside abroad may vote in elections for the Senate of the Republic.

The system of electoral quotient shall apply to the special constituency for the election of senators by indigenous communities.

The representatives of the indigenous communities who aspire to become members of the Senate of the Republic must have exercised a position of traditional authority in their respective community or have been leaders of an indigenous organization, which qualification shall be verified by a certificate from the respective organization, endorsed by the Minister of the Government.

In order to be elected senator, the candidate must be a Colombian citizen at birth, a citizen in good standing, and be over 30 years of age on the date of the election.

The following are the powers of the Senate:

To approve or reject the resignation from office by the President of the Republic or the Vice President.

To approve or disapprove military promotions granted by the government from general officers and flag officers of the public force up to the highest rank.

To grant permission to the President of the Republic to take temporary leave from his/her office outside of sickness and to decide about the qualifications of the Vice President to serve as President of the Republic.

To allow the transiting of foreign troops across the territory of the Republic.

To authorize the government to declare war on another state.

To elect the judges of the Constitutional Court.

To elect the General Prosecutor of the Nation.

The Senate has the power to hear the charges that the House of Representatives makes against the President of the Republic or whoever is taking that position and against the members of the Commission of Immunity, although no longer performing their functions. In this case, it will be competent to hear the facts and omissions that occurred during office.

The following rules shall be observed in the decisions made by the Senate:

The accused is automatically suspended from his/her office whenever he/she admits publicly to a charge.

If the charge refers to crimes committed in the exercise of his/her functions or that he/she becomes unworthy to serve because of a misdemeanor, the Senate may only impose the sanction of discharge from office or the temporary or absolute suspension of political rights. But the accused shall be brought to trial before the Supreme Court of Justice if the evidence demonstrates that the individual to be responsible for an infraction deserves other penalties.

If the charge refers to common crimes, the Senate shall confine itself to declare if there are grounds or not for further measures, and in the affirmative case it shall place the accused at the disposal of the Supreme Court.

The Senate may commission a task force from among its own ranks for investigation, reserving for itself the decision and definitive sanction to be pronounced in a public session by at least two-thirds of the votes of the Senators present.

The House of Representatives shall be elected in territorial and special constituencies.

Each department and the Capital District of Bogotá will form part of a territorial constituency. There will be two representatives for each territorial constituency and an additional one for each 365,000 inhabitants or a fraction greater than 182,500 over the first 365,000. The territorial constituency formed by the department of San Andres, Providencia, and Santa Catalina will elect an additional (1) representative for the Raizal community of the said department, according to the law.

For the election of representatives to the House, each department and the Capital District of Bogotá shall constitute a territorial constituency.

The special constituencies will guarantee the participation of ethnic groups and Colombians that reside abroad in the House of Representatives. Through these constituencies, there will be the election of four (4) representatives distributed as follows: two (2) for the constituency of the Afro-descendant communities, one (1) for the constituency of the indigenous communities, and one (1) for the international constituency. In this last constituency, only those votes deposited outside of the national territory by citizens that reside abroad will be counted.

Beginning in 2014, the assignment of additional seats shall be based on the corresponding proportional increase of the national population, in accordance with the results of the census. It shall be the task of the electoral commission to adjust the number for the assignment of seats.

If as a result of the application of the formula contained in the present Article a territorial constituency should lose one or more seats, it shall keep the number of seats to which it was entitled on July 20, 2002.

The Congress of the Republic shall issue regulations for the international constituency until December 16, 2013 at the latest; otherwise the National Government shall do so within thirty (30) days following that date. The regulations shall cover, among other things, the following matters: the registration of candidates, the registration of citizens entitled to vote abroad, mechanisms to promote the participation in the vote and the holding of the ballot in the Consulates and State funding for visits abroad by the elected Representative.

To be elected representative, it is necessary to be a citizen in good standing and be older than 25 years of age on the date of the election.

The House of Representatives shall have the following special powers:

To elect the Ombudsman.

To examine and finalize the general budgetary and treasury account presented to it by the Controller General of the Republic.

Accuse the President of the Republic or whoever is occupying that office before the Senate, with a prior request in the Commission for the Investigation and Prosecution of the House of Representatives, when there are constitutional causes, as well as the members of the Commission of Immunity.

To take cognizance of denunciations and complaints presented before it by the Attorney General of the Nation or by individuals against specific officials and, if valid, to bring charges on that basis before the Senate.

To request the assistance of other authorities for the conduct of investigations for which the House is competent, and to commission the collection of evidence when the House considers it appropriate.

The Magistrates of the Constitutional Court, and the Supreme Court of Justice, the Council of State, the National Commission of Judicial Discipline, and the Attorney General of the Nation will be responsible for whatever infraction of the disciplinary or penal law committed during the exercise of their functions or related with them. In any case, it will not be required, at any moment, responsibility for the votes and opinions issued in their judicial or consultative providences, issued according to their functional independence, without prejudice to the responsibility that applies from wrongfully favoring their own or other’s interests.

A Commission of Immunity will be competent to investigate and accuse, according to the law and the principles of due process, the office holders mentioned in the previous paragraph, even after the end of their official functions. In this case, it will be competent to hear the facts and omissions that occurred while in the exercise of official functions.

If the investigation is about disciplinary offence of indignity for bad conduct, the Commission of Immunity will proceed with the investigation and when pertinent will present charges to the House of Representatives. In no case can they be able to impose other sentence than the suspension and destitution from office. The decision of the House of Representatives can be appealed before the Senate of the Republic. Congress can in no case engage in investigations to furnish evidence. Against the decision of the Senate, there can be no recourse or action.

If the investigation is about crimes, the Commission of Immunity will also present charges to the Supreme Court of Justice for the proceedings to continue in that institution. In case of judicial proceedings against magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice, the other judges will be designated by the Council of State.

The Commission will have sixty days to present the charge when the case refers to disciplinary offence of indignity for bad conduct, and the House of Representatives will have thirty days to decide. In any case, the Commission will be able to act with the investigation of a criminal cause if pertinent and, if they find merit in the accusation, can advance with the established proceeding in the past paragraph, in the term that the law establishes.

The Commission shall consist of five members, elected by the Congress in Plenum for the individual periods of eight years, of lists sent by the Government Judicial Council and constructed with public calls made by the Administration of the Judicial Branch within the terms established by the law.

The members of the Commission of Immunity should hold the qualities required for the Magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice and will be subject to the same requirements of unfitness and incompatibilities.

The Chambers of the Constitutional Court, of the Supreme Court of Justice, of the Council of State, and the National Commission of Disciplinary Justice, can request the Commission of Immunity the suspension of one of its members while the accusation of disciplinary offences for indignity for bad conduct is decided.

The law will establish the procedures to determine the fiscal responsibility when the officeholders with immunity referred to in this Article exercise administrative functions.

Without prejudice to the established in the third section of Article 178, the Commission for Investigation and Prosecution of the House of Representatives will maintain, during a year to be counted from the entry into force of this Legislative Act, the power to investigate the facts that occur before the magistrates of the Commission of Immunity take office, those that are imputed to the officeholders with immunity referred to in this Article and the magistrate of the Supreme Council of the Judicature. The House of Representatives will adopt the necessary administrative decisions so that the investigative representatives can, in that period of time:

Dictate inhibiting resolutions in the cases that do no merit the formal initiation of an investigation when it appears that the conduct has not existed, that is objectively atypical, that the penal action cannot begin, or that a cause of no liability is demonstrated.

Submit the investigation to the competent authorities if it is about actions committed outside of public office and the person investigated had ceased the practice of public office.

Order the beginning of the investigation when the facts of the case merits and submit it to the Commission of Immunity for the initiation of the process.

Present the charge before the Plenary Session of the House of Representatives with respect to open investigations, when the facts of the case merit it.

Submit to the Commission of Immunity all other investigations, in the phase that they are found, including those that have progressed against the magistrates of the Supreme Council of the Judicature.

While the law does not adopt the applicable procedure, the Commission of Immunity will be ruled by the procedural regime used in the investigation undertaken by the Commission of Investigation and Prosecution and the norms that substitute and modify it.

Members of Congress are prohibited from engaging in the following activities:

Holding public or private office or employment.

Managing in their own name or that of somebody else of public authorities or individuals that administer taxes, being invested with powers with them or to conclude contracts, on their own or through an intermediary, with them. An Act shall establish the exceptions to this provision.

Being a member of boards or executive committees of decentralized official entities of whatever level or institutions that administer taxes.

Concluding contracts or making arrangements with individuals or private legal entities that administer, manage, or invest public funds or are contractors of the state or receive subsidies from the latter. Excepted is the acquisition of goods or services that are offered to citizens in conditions of equality.

The profession of university teacher is excepted from the regime of incompatibilities.

The official who, in violation of the present article, appoints a member of Congress to a post or office or concludes a contract with him/her or accepts that he/she should act as business representative in his/her own name or that of a third party, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

The incompatibilities of the congressmen shall be in effect during the applicable constitutional period. In case of resignation, they shall continue to apply during the year subsequent to their acceptance if the time that remains before the expiration of the term is greater than the time elapsed.

Whoever is to be called to occupy the position shall be subject to the same system of disqualifications and incompatibilities beginning with their taking office.

Members of Congress shall inform their respective House of the moral or economic situation that prevents them from participating in the discussion of the matters submitted for their consideration. An Act shall determine the rules governing conflicts of interest and objections.

Members of Congress lose their seat for the following causes:

For violating the rules on disqualifications and incompatibilities or the rules on conflict of interest.

For their absence, in the same term of sessions, from six plenary meetings at which legislative acts, bills, or motions of censure are voted upon.

For not taking their seat within eight (8) days following the constitution of the respective body or the date on which they were summoned to take their seat.

For the improper payment of public funds.

For duly proven influence trafficking.

Subparagraphs 2 and 3 shall not apply when "force majeure" is involved.

The loss of the seat shall be decided by the Council of State in accordance with the relevant statute and within no more than twenty working days, beginning with the date of the request made by the executive committee of the appropriate House or by any citizen.

Members of Congress enjoy immunity for their opinions and the votes that they cast in the exercise of their office, without prejudice to the disciplinary rules included in the respective rules of procedure.

For the offenses that members of Congress may commit, the Supreme Court of Justice is the sole authority that may order their detention. In case of "flagrante delicto," members of Congress shall be apprehended and placed immediately at the disposal of the same body.

The remuneration of the members of Congress shall be adjusted each year in proportion equal to the weighted average of the adjustments made in the remuneration of the civil servants of the central administration on the basis of a certification that the Controller General of the Republic shall issue for that purpose.