Colombia Elections 2022: A court orders Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández to attend a presidential debate | Presidential Elections Colombia
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The Superior Court of Bogotá has ordered the presidential candidates Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández to agree on the rules to hold at least one debate within 48 hours of notification of the ruling, that is, until this Thursday. The face to face, which Hernández had resisted before the second round this Sunday, must be held by mutual agreement.
“The presidential debates are in themselves considered a right of the candidate to present his ideas, but at the same time a duty towards the social conglomerate,” says the ruling. “The national transcendence implied by the election of the President of the Republic in our State, the right to access the media of parties, social movements, politicians and significant groups of citizens, implies an implicit duty towards the citizen to allow him to know to their candidates”, argues another passage of the decision.
Petro, who before the first round had briefly suspended his attendance at the face-to-face but demanded the opportunity to debate before the final appointment, was fully willing to abide by the decision in his first reactions. “The court has ordered the presidential debate between candidates. It is the right of the people. I’m ready for it,” he said earlier this Wednesday on his Twitter account. Hernández’s team, which has concentrated its campaign on social networks, has not yet made a statement.
The two finalists have appeared very evenly matched in the latest polls that the law allowed to be released, so a face-to-face meeting generates enormous expectations. The debate must be requested and scheduled jointly between the two campaigns to be held no later than this Thursday, June 16, with a duration of one hour, and the public media system Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia (RTVC) must broadcast it, according to the decision of the magistrates.
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