(03/02/09) -

Fewer Colombians Want Third Term for Uribe

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The once-overwhelming support for the second re-election of Colombian president Álvaro Uribe has dwindled in the country, according to a poll by Datexco/Opinómetro. 54.8 per cent of respondents would support allowing Uribe to run for a third consecutive term in office, down 7.6 points since November.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The once-overwhelming support for the second re-election of Colombian president Álvaro Uribe has dwindled in the country, according to a poll by Datexco/Opinómetro. 54.8 per cent of respondents would support allowing Uribe to run for a third consecutive term in office, down 7.6 points since November.

Uribe has been Colombia’s president since August 2002. In the May 2006 election, he won a new four-year term with 62.2 per cent of all cast ballots. He was able to run again after pro-Uribe lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Constitutional Court officially sanctioned a plan to allow immediate presidential re-election. After issuing its ruling, the court warned that the clause was not valid for the unlimited re-election of the head of state. Uribe would require a new constitutional amendment to run again.

Uribe has been commended for improving the economy and for his security policies, especially his hard stand against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a radical left-wing armed group. However, his administration is currently under great strain. Seventy-one lawmakers—85 per cent of whom are Uribe supporters—are being investigated for alleged ties with right-wing, illegal paramilitary armies; 31 of them are either detained or already serving time in jail. The accusations range from receiving the backing of war lords for electoral benefits, to directly participating in select killings and massacres for political or economic purposes. Uribe’s first cousin and close political ally, Mario Uribe, is one of the lawmakers tied to the scandal.

Colombia’s Congress is currently pondering two options to allow Uribe to extend his tenure. One of them entails bypassing a constitutional reform by holding a nationwide referendum on whether the president should stay in office for another four years. The second proposal seeks to enact a constitutional amendment that would allow Uribe to become a candidate in 2014, but not in 2010, when the next election is due. Either option would have to be approved by legislators, and then sanctioned by the Constitutional Court. The president himself has not clearly stated whether he wants to run for office again.

Last month, Colombia’s Semana magazine reported that the national intelligence service—the Department of Administrative Security (DAS)—was illegally intercepting communications from opposition politicians, judges, journalists and even government staff. According to the investigation, a group of people within DAS were gathering the communications in exchange for cash.

On Feb. 26, Juan Manuel Galán, a lawmaker with the opposition Liberal party who has proposed an overhaul of Colombia’s intelligence institutions, criticized what he deemed the "lax response" to various scandals involving the DAS. Galán said that the government "does to want" to reform the intelligence agency, despite the fact that, "the history of infiltrations in the DAS dates back to the 1980s. Drug traffickers and paramilitaries have been in the DAS since then."

Polling Data

Would you support or oppose allowing Álvaro Uribe to run for president for a third consecutive time?