Electoral system family

Constitutional Court of the Republic of Colombia (Corte Constitucional República de Colombia), Political Constitution of Colombia (Constitución Política de Colombia), accessed 13 April 2026

Article 262: Parties, political movements, and significant groups of citizens that decide to participate in popular election processes will register candidates and lists, whose number may not exceed the number of seats or offices allocated to the electoral district, except in districts that elect up to two members, where lists may include up to three (3) candidates. 

The selection of candidates of political parties and movements with legal personality will be made according to mechanisms of internal democracy, following the provisions of law and statutes. In the process of making lists, all parties and movements must progressively observe the principles of parity, alternation, and universality, among other principles, according to the provisions of law. 

Each political party and movement can opt for mechanisms of preferential voting. In this case, the elector can indicate his/her preferred candidate among members of the list that appear in the electoral ticket. The list will be reordered according to the quantity of votes gathered by each of the candidates. The allocation of seats among the members of the respective lists will be made accordingly in descending order starting with the candidate that obtains the greatest number of preferential votes. 

In the case of political parties and political movements that have chosen the preferential voting system, a vote for a political party or movement that the elector did not assign to any particular candidate will be counted in favor of the respective list where the minimum vote threshold and electoral quotient are concerned, but it will not be considered for the reorganization of the list. When the elector votes simultaneously for the political party or movement and for the candidate of its preference within the corresponding list, the vote will be valid and will be considered in favor of the candidate. 

The law will regulate the predominantly public financing of campaigns; mechanisms of internal party democracy; the registration of candidates, single-party lists, and coalition lists in elections for uninominal offices or public corporations; and the administration of resources and protection of candidates’ rights. Political parties and movements with legal personality that obtain a total of up to 15 percent of the valid votes within the respective district can present a coalition list of candidates for public institutions.