Colombians go to the polls this Sunday, 8th, to renew Congress and narrow down the pool of candidates for the highest office in the country. More than three thousand candidates are competing for the 102 seats available in the Senate and 183 in the Chamber of Representatives, in an election with 41.2 million qualified voters.
The new Congress must govern with Gustavo Petro’s successor, without the possibility of re-election, after a tense relationship with the Legislature that counterbalanced and did not approve all of its social reforms.
Petro’s political party, Historic Pact, is betting on increasing its seats in Congress to obtain a majority and leverage pending reforms and the request to hold a Constituent Assembly to modify the Magna Carta, which is still in development and would need Parliament’s approval.
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Meanwhile, the right, which is the opposition, seeks to return to being one of the most relevant forces in the Legislature. The Democratic Center, the main opposition party, is driven by the influential former president Álvaro Uribe Vélez (2002-2010), who ran as a candidate for the Senate.
The “primaries”
Colombians will be able to vote in inter-party consultations, which include 16 candidates from three political currents: center, center-left and right. The three candidates who win in each of them must go directly to the first presidential round scheduled for May 31st.
Candidates found consultations to be a way of measuring their electoral potential before reaching the first round. Four years ago, Petro participated and won in the left-wing consultation, competing with Francia Márquez, who later became his vice-president.
However, in the current consultations the two candidates, who so far polls show as leaders, are not participating: the leftist Iván Cepeda, from Petro’s party, and the ultra-rightist Abelardo de la Espriella.
“Consultations can be a success or a failure. Winning a consultation does not necessarily give viability to those who win it; what gives viability is showing that you have electoral muscle that allows you to compete with leaders who did not participate in them”, he assured the Associated Press political analyst Gabriel Cifuentes.
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He added that, after Sunday’s vote, a second phase of the presidential campaign will begin in which the candidates for the first round will be defined and, in the case of the winners of the consultations, it will be known what electoral potential they have.
Two candidates similar to Petro are participating in the center-left consultation, including the former ambassador to the United Kingdom, Roy Barreras.
In the center, Claudia López, former mayor of Bogotá, and Leonardo Huerta, a little-known lawyer, compete.
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While on the right, nine candidates are being measured, including Paloma Valencia, the candidate for the main opposition party.
The election day is guarded across the country by more than 126,000 public force personnel. The borders remain closed and the consumption of alcoholic beverages is prohibited.
