The government of President Gustavo Petro has officially initiated the bureaucratic machinery to rewrite Colombia’s 1991 Constitution through a National Constituent Assembly, moving a controversial proposal from rhetorical threat to concrete political action.
On Friday, Minister of Labor Antonio Sanguino formally registered the “Promoter Committee” at the National Registry. This nine-member group is now tasked with a monumental logistical challenge, gathering approximately 3 million signatures, equivalent to 5% of the electoral census, to support a bill calling for a National Constituent Assembly.
“Starting today, with the filing of this initiative and the registration of this committee … the process of collecting signatures starts so that the constituent power can express itself,” Sanguino told reporters outside the registry.
The push for a Constituent Assembly follows a year of legislative defeats for his administration
The decision to mobilize the streets follows a year of crushing legislative defeats for the administration. President Petro has argued that an “institutional blockade” in Congress has systematically dismantled his social agenda, citing the stalling of health and labor reforms and the recent sinking of his tax reform bill on Dec. 9, which left the 2026 budget unfunded.
The President also revived the call for a Constituent Assembly following a ruling by the Superior Tribunal of Bogota earlier this year, which acquitted former President Alvaro Uribe in a long-standing legal case, a decision Petro criticized sharply.
No voy a ser dictador. No insulte, ni la constituyente se hará en mi gobierno.
Usted lideró el gobierno de Duque y el gobierno de Duque con el de Uribe es el de los mayores detractores del Estado Social de Derecho de la Constitución de 1991. Quedan escenas de miles de… https://t.co/jedoRO285Y
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) December 27, 2025
“The people must not let their power to transform Colombia and progress be taken away,” President Petro wrote on X (formerly Twitter) following the committee’s registration.
The National Constituent Assembly must pass through Colombia’s Congress
The registration is merely the first step in a complicated legal process. Even if the committee secures the required signatures, the initiative must pass as a law through Congress, where the government lacks a majority, and survive a review by the Constitutional Court. Finally, it would require a national vote in which at least one-third of the electorate (roughly 13 million people) must vote “Yes.”
Justice Minister Eduardo Montealegre has previously outlined a vision for an assembly of 71 delegates, with quotas for peasants, Indigenous groups, and the LGBTIQ+ community, aimed at updating institutions he claims have become “obsolete.” With legislative elections scheduled for March 8 and Petro’s term ending in August, analysts view the move as practically impossible to complete within the current mandate. However, the initiative serves as a powerful rallying cry for the left’s campaign.
Ivan Cepeda, the senator and presidential candidate for the ruling Historic Pact coalition, has embraced the strategy. “The most important thing is the constituent power,” Cepeda said in a recent interview. “That the people mobilize.” Petro himself has acknowledged the timing constraints, framing the signature drive as a mandate for the next legislature. “A political discussion will come, not in this Congress, but in the new one,” Petro stated. “You, citizens, will decide if the majority of that new Congress takes away the people’s voice … or votes for it.”