ЭЛЕКТОРАЛЬНАЯ ЮСТИЦИЯ РЕСПУБЛИКИ КОЛУМБИЯ

Abstract

The realization of citizens' electoral rights and their effective protection provided by electoral justice bodies are the basis of democracy. The meaning of electoral justice is an impartial and independent approach to disputes arising on the implementation of citizens' electoral rights from other state bodies. The democratic system of Colombia is one of the oldest in Latin America, but it is far from the most perfect in terms of the organization of the electoral justice system. That is why one of the key elements of moving towards strengthening Colombian democracy is the existence of electoral justice bodies with sufficient capacity, transparency and impartiality to ensure the legality of electoral processes. In this article, the author analyzes the modern Colombian approach to electoral justice, discusses the main shortcomings of the Colombian electoral justice bodies, as well as the reasons that give rise to such shortcomings, and concludes that in Colombia, control over the electoral process and the subsequent implementation of citizens' electoral rights are not effective, given the actual presence of electoral justice bodies in the country. The reasons for this situation are different and lie both in certain features of the socio-historical development of the region, and in the imperfection of the norms of the current legislation. In the conditions of a high degree of distrust of citizens to the electoral process in particular and to democracy in the country as a whole, the only solution to the problem is the development of mechanisms that exclude the interference of parties, as well as legislative and executive bodies in the elections of senior officials of these entities. Meanwhile, the institution of electoral justice itself objectively shows its effectiveness and is recommended for implementation in the Russian Federation in the form of an autonomous system of electoral courts, including the Federal Electoral Court, Electoral Courts of the constituent entities of the Federation, Municipal Electoral Courts and Electoral judges corps of polling stations.