This study investigates the potential of representational transitional justice (TJ) policies to promote the political integration of conflict victims. While conventional TJ initiatives have yielded inconsistent outcomes in facilitating reconciliation and building trust, the consequences of the direct involvement of victims in formal political institutions remain unexamined. We contribute to this debate by focusing on Colombia's Special Transitory Peace Districts (CITREP), which allocated 16 extra-legislative seats for conflict victims during the 2022 elections. We evaluate the impact of this policy on participation, political efficacy, and institutional trust. CITREP's allocation to specific municipalities based on territorial contiguity and the restriction of eligibility to rural districts, enable us to discern its causal effects. We use electoral results at the polling station level, which help capture the immediate turnout response to the policy, and novel individual-level survey data collected two years after the seminal election that allows us to yield how such reactions turned into beliefs. Difference-in-differences models using polling-station data indicate that CITREP increased turnout in the inaugural CITREP elections by 5 percent. Nonetheless, our survey, conducted after several CITREP MPs became embroiled in corruption scandals with armed groups and political party machines, reveals that initial expectations related to the policy have not been fulfilled and CITREP communities currently exhibit worse opinions about the initiative and demonstrate diminished levels of political efficacy and hope regarding TJ policies. These results underscore that well-intentioned policies can produce adverse effects when expectations are unmet, emphasizing the necessity for careful oversight during implementation.