Indigenous electoral circumscription in Colombia between the special and the unusual Circunscripción electoral indígena en Colombia: entre lo especial y lo insólito

Abstract

The article notes that the Special Indigenous Circumscription is an exception in the Colombian electoral system, not only for the conscious and legitimate purposes that it seeks to guarantee equity in the access to the political rights of underrepresented minority populations, but for other, attributable reasons to inconsistencies in the expression of principles of legal doctrine, lack of definition in the characterization of indigenous identity, and technical shortcomings attributable to the electoral system itself.

The current configuration of the territorial model of this circumscription and the definition of the representation rules of the same empower the emission of the vote from any electoral college of the national territory and by any suitor authorized in the register. This circumstance contravenes the elementary principles for which it was conceived, ignores the indigenous autonomy recognized by law and generates electoral intrusiveness, creating an important bias of representation in the model of political representation.

The reasons for this situation are analyzed and arguments are offered for the debate on this. The author proposes, in the case of the House of Representatives, to restrict said circumscription to the votes cast exclusively in the cabildos, officially recognized collective indigenous territories or, failing that, to those citizens who can demonstrate their indigenous condition by creating an indigenous electoral census. Such reforms would have positive side effects in the reduction of white and null votes at the national level.