COLOMBIA: PARTIES ALLIED TO PRESIDENT ALVARO URIBE WIN CONTROL OF CONGRESS.
Colombia's congressional elections on March 12 handed control of the legislature to parties allied with President Alvaro Uribe. Winners included the Partido Conservador (PC), Cambio Radical, Partido de la U, and Convergencia Ciudadana, while the Partido Liberal (PL) lost many of the seats it was trying to gain and slipped even further from its historically central role in Colombian politics. The leftist Polo Democratico Alternativo (PDA), however, has gained unprecedented strength in the Congress. The vote also served as a primary election for the presidential race for the PL and PDA, determining the opposition parties' candidates who will run against Uribe in May, although neither winner appears to have much chance of success.
The landslide victory for Uribe-allied parties gave the president 72 allied seats in the 102-seat Congress, while his opponents will have 28. Results show similar gains in the lower house, with government parties taking 91 of 166 seats. Some independent winners have yet to say whether they will be a part of Uribe's coalition.
The Partido de la U will be the largest presence in both houses, the PC will be the second-strongest party, Cambio Radical fourth-largest, and Convergencia Ciudadana the sixth-largest. Uribe's allies also include four other smaller movements.
The PL took only 17 of the 30 seats it had campaigned for, while the PDA will have 11 legislators, making it the fifth-largest force in the body. It was the first time that the PDA gained so many seats.
Voter turnout was only about 40%, with about 10.78 million people voting. Analysts said the low voter turnout and the fact that 13% of voters cast invalid ballots could not be entirely attributed to the leftist guerrillas, although they fomented abstention through attacks in the days leading up to the vote.
A number of conservative candidates took up the campaign strategy that served Uribe patron US President George W. Bush so well during his 2004 re-election campaign: they stirred up fears regarding marriage rights for gay Colombians. In addition to campaigning against same-sex marriage rights, they promised voters that they would fight Colombia's growing movement to decriminalize abortion.
Primaries nominate Serpa, Gaviria to oppose Uribe
The PL is apparently plummeting from its strength in decades past when, as one of Colombia's traditional parties, it traded power with the PC. Former secretary of the Organization of American States (OAS) from 1994 to...
Para continuar leyendo
Solicita tu pruebaCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
