The Colombian legislative elections have resulted in a fragmented Congress, which will take office on July 20
Colombia’s left, led by the country’s president, Gustavo Petro, won the legislative elections on Sunday the 8th. and left the polls with the largest bench in the Chamber and Senate. The result puts Petro’s party, the Democratic Pact, in a good position for the fierce dispute with the conservative camp in the May 31 presidential election.
The Colombian legislative elections have resulted in a fragmented Congress, which will take office on July 20. The Historic Pact elected 25 of the 103 senators and 40 deputies out of a total of 188 – according to projections, as the official result had not yet been consolidated yesterday. Fragmentation indicates that it will be necessary to establish alliances to achieve a majority.
Legislative elections take the temperature in Colombia before presidential votes. The main candidates for president are Senator Iván Cepeda, from Petro’s party, and right-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, a declared admirer of Salvadoran Nayib Bukele and American Donald Trump.
The results also determine the last five months of Petro’s term, who cannot run for re-election. Cepeda intends to insist on the reforms that the current president was unable to implement after losing his majorities in Congress towards the end of his term.
Congressmen vetoed changes to the healthcare system and a tax reform to combat the fiscal deficit. Petro responded with popular demonstrations, in which he made scathing speeches against Congress, which has lost prestige among the electorate in recent years due to several corruption scandals.
The president, however, appears to have regained ground with recent tensions with Trump, which include American deportation policies and threats of sanctions and exchanges of accusations about drug trafficking.
Tough dispute
“Today our second half begins with a strong bench”, celebrated Cepeda. De la Espriella lamented that the left was left with “the largest group in Congress”. “This is very serious,” he said.
Polls, however, indicate that neither Cepeda nor De la Espriella will be able to seal victory in the first round – and will need a second, scheduled for June 21st. Both could still be surprised by the Uribista candidate Paloma Valencia, who came from the center-right political group of former president Alvaro Uribe – who was a candidate for the Senate for the Democratic Center, but was not elected. Uribe is back on the political scene after a court in October overturned his sentence to 12 years of house arrest for bribery of paramilitaries and procedural fraud.
Attacks
The hallmark of the elections in Colombia continues to be the armed conflict that dictates the pace of the political dispute in the country over the last 50 years Two guerrilla attacks in southern Colombia marked the election day.
Authorities reported that rebels attacked two polling places during the count, but caused no casualties. Before the legislative elections, election observers reported several acts of violence against political leaders, including the murder last year of right-wing presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay, grandson of former Colombian president Julio Turbay (1978-1982).
The militias held responsible for the crime are going through a period of strengthening, driven by the failure of peace negotiations and the increase in cocaine consumption in the USA and Europe. After the dismantling of the historic Cali and Medellín cartels, which dominated the Colombian scene in the 1990s, organized crime fragmented, becoming more violent and difficult to combat.
Guerrillas
Another complicating factor in Colombia is the presence of far-left guerrillassuch as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN). Over time, these groups abandoned political goals and turned into ordinary criminal organizations.
*Estadão Conteúdo with international agencies
