(02/21/10) -

Uribe Still Strongest Candidate in Colombia

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – If allowed to seek a third consecutive term in office, Colombian president Álvaro Uribe would secure his re-election in this year’s ballot, according to a poll by Centro Nacional de Consultoría. 45 per cent of respondents would vote for conservative Uribe in the May election.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – If allowed to seek a third consecutive term in office, Colombian president Álvaro Uribe would secure his re-election in this year’s ballot, according to a poll by Centro Nacional de Consultoría. 45 per cent of respondents would vote for conservative Uribe in the May election.

Former Medellín mayor Sergio Fajardo and opposition leftist Democratic Pole (PD) member Gustavo Petro are both far behind with nine per cent, followed by Noemí Sanín of the Conservative Party (PC) with seven per cent, Rafael Pardo of the Liberal Party (PL) with six per cent, and Germán Vargas Lleras of Radical Change (CR) with five per cent. 19 per cent of respondents remain undecided.

When Uribe’s name is removed from the list of candidates, Uribe ally and former defence minister Juan Manuel Santos is first with 18 per cent, followed by Fajardo with 12 per cent and Sanín with 11 per cent.

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.

A group of Uribe supporters has gathered enough signatures to call a nationwide referendum on whether the current president should be allowed to run for re-election again this year. In September 2009, Congress approved the referendum bill in a late-night vote boycotted by members of the opposition. The Constitutional Court is currently studying the validity of the referendum.

The president himself has not clearly stated whether he wants to run for office again, but he actively pushed allied lawmakers and his own cabinet ministers to pass the referendum bill in Congress.

In late December, the president and his entire cabinet signed into law a series of decrees proposed by the Ministry of Social Protection which declare a state of emergency in the health care sector, which is essentially broke. Among other things, the decrees force patients to pay out of pocket for non-emergency procedures, and to use their pension funds to pay for surgery and other needs. Doctors are also now subject to hefty fines for prescribing expensive drugs.

The decrees have been widely criticized by the medical community and patients alike, and some of them have already been repealed by the president.

On Feb. 18, thousands of protesters gathered in at least five major cities across the country urging the government to repeal all the health care decrees.

Polling Data

Which of these candidates would you vote for in the presidential election?