Federico Gutiérrez may appear under his pseudonym on the electoral card

The current Electoral Code states that when candidates register to participate in the elections they must present their identity document and their real and full name appears on it, and it is written on the form

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After days of controversy, the National Electoral Council decided to allow Federico Gutiérrez, the presidential candidate of the Team for Colombia, to appear on the first round card under his pseudonym. Thus, in the format the politician will be found under the name of Fico.

The decision was made despite the fact that Law 62 of 1988, the most recent provision on the subject in the current Electoral Code, states that when candidates register to participate before the registrar, they must present their identity document and their real and full name appears on it, which is written on the form.

Thus, presidential candidates are registered with emblems, names and surnames, and these must be printed on the card. However, there are no specific provisions on the use of trailers in this instance.

It is worth mentioning that there is a history of candidates for other corporations who appear with trailers on the cards, more history of candidates who wanted to use them but were prevented from their local registrary.The list includes Luis Eduardo Garzón, known as Lucho Garzón, for Bogotá Mayor's Office in 2003 and the late Marcos Ataya, who was known as Machete and thus appeared on the card for the Mayor's Office of Arauca (Arauca).

It should be clarified at this point that it is not true that the candidate's name should appear in full on the card and it has not always happened. In fact, the current card does not appear “Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego”, “Sergio Fajardo Valderrama” or “Luis Emilio Pérez Gutiérrez”.

In the case of the representative of the Team for Colombia, his natural name is Federico Andrés Gutiérrez Zuluaga. However, on the card it appears as “Fico Gutiérrez”, with his nickname instead of his first name and without his second surname.

Before that, he had also appeared under his nickname on the card of the interparty consultation he won. On the other hand, Alejandro Char Chaljub, the second place in the Team for Colombia, did not compete with his real name either but with the apocope that identifies him among the people and before the media: “Álex Char”.

This would be the third time that Fico has appeared on a voter card. The first was when he ran for mayor in Medellín for the 2016-2019 period, a candidacy he won. On that occasion, their two names and surnames were included, as did those of the rest of the applicants.

Some people consider that allowing the candidate to appear under a nickname would be an advantage for him during the elections. So they wonder if it's legal for a candidate to use a trailer.

To this controversy, Gutierrez responded that it seems absurd to him and the country should enter into more important discussions.

“Now they were totally bothered, this is a country with so many difficulties, with so much poverty, with so many problems and so much violence and they are worried that if they give me 'Fico' or Federico,” he said.

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