(04/17/10) -

Mockus Catapults to Second Place in Colombia

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Public support for Green Party (PV) presidential candidate Antanas Mockus increased markedly in Colombia this month, according to a poll by Datexco released by El Tiempo and W Radio. 24.8 per cent of respondents would vote for Mockus, up 15.9 points since March.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Public support for Green Party (PV) presidential candidate Antanas Mockus increased markedly in Colombia this month, according to a poll by Datexco released by El Tiempo and W Radio. 24.8 per cent of respondents would vote for Mockus, up 15.9 points since March.

Former defence minister Juan Manuel Santos of the U Party (U) is still in first place with 29.5 per cent. Noemí Sanín of the Conservative Party (PC) is now third with 16.4 per cent. Support is considerably lower for Rafael Pardo of the Liberal Party (PL), Gustavo Petro of the Democratic Pole (PD) and Germán Vargas Lleras of Radical Change (CR).

Álvaro 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.

A group of Uribe supporters 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. In February 2010, the Constitutional Court voted 7-2 against the referendum proposal. Uribe said he "accepted" and "respected" the court’s decision.

Immediately after the ruling, Santos confirmed that he would become a presidential candidate for the U Party, which borrows his name from the first letter of the current president’s name.

On Mar. 14, Colombians voted in legislative elections. The U Party garnered the most votes, followed by the pro-Uribe Conservatives and the opposition Liberals.

The PC has supported the Uribe administration since the beginning of his first term. The party did not nominate a candidate to stand against Uribe in the 2006 election. However, this time the PC has Sanín standing against Santos. Both are running on a platform of continuing with Uribe’s policies.

On Apr. 15, Uribe appeared to criticize Mockus, declaring, "It seems very grave to me that when some people in this country allowed paramilitarism to grow and failed to combat it, now present themselves as honest and enemies of politicking."

Mockus dismissed the president’s assertions, saying, "Uribe is not paying attention to his own statements, because he lauded my work on security [in Bogota] where we worked in conjunction for more than 11 months. (…) They are seeing the possibility that we will defeat them in the election and this is why they are reacting in such an emotional way."

The presidential election is scheduled for May 30. If no candidate garners more than 50 per cent of the vote, a run-off must take place.

Polling Data

If a presidential election took place tomorrow, which of the following candidates would you vote for?