Third Time is Not the Charm
On Friday, the Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled that the current President, Álvaro Uribe, would not be able to run for a third consecutive term this year. This was not guaranteed. Having changed the constitution previously to be able to run for a second term, a referendum was put forward last year to allow Uribe to change the constitution yet again to go for another four years. Most people here would have told you they considered it a toss-up as to how the court would decide, and other candidates seemed to agree as many chose not to announce until they heard the outcome. To Uribe’s credit, he immediately accepted the court’s decision preventing him from running this year.
What this means is that there will really be an honest-to-goodness presidential race this year. It was presumed that if Uribe ran then he would win, so with him out of the picture the Executive seat is much more up for grabs. The first round of elections will be in May with run-offs three weeks later.
We’ll keep you posted…
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With an open election, the factions will be trying to grab power, won’t they? Keep your heads down…at least a little.
What? Accepted the court’s decision? Where’s the fun in that? That means you’ll miss the whole ignore the courts, have a coup, get flown to Costa Rica, sneak back in, cover your windows from the “israeli mercenaries” and their secret weapons and poison gasses, sign accords then claim that’s not really what you meant, eventually end up in the DR leaving your country bankrupt and a pariah, thing.
Ok, so maybe missing that is a good thing.