"This is dead." Those were the words of a Barranquilla polling officer on Sunday when she was asked about the affluence of voters. 29 million Colombians were allowed to vote in yesterday’s primary elections, which decided the names of the presidential candidates for the Liberal Party and the Polo Democratico Alternativo (PDA), both in opposition. In the eight hours during which the polling places were open, a mere 1.4 million people voted.
With such a pittance of a vote, the Liberals elected former Defense Minister Rafael Pardo while the PDA chose Senator Gustavo Petro. Alfonso Gomez Mendez, a former Prosecutor General and a presidential hopeful for the Liberal Party said he was "very worried" about the high levels of abstentionism during the election. The hours went idly by, the polling places were empty, the polling officers grew increasingly bored, and the voters stayed home. Oh, democracy!
This primary election was a good indicator of several aspects of contemporary Colombian politics. Above all, the anemic results obtained by both the Liberals and the PDA confirms their status as minority parties. The years they have acted in opposition to the Uribe administration have weakened their constituencies and affected their chances of winning the presidency in the medium term. Before Sunday’s election, former President Cesar Gaviria, now leader of the Liberal Party, declared that "the volume of our votes will show that we are a real option for power in 2010." After Sunday’s results, Mr. Gaviria and all other Liberals should stop deluding themselves. No more wishful thinking. Please stop, for your own good. They, together with the PDA, should start admitting the fact that the next President of Colombia will not come from their ranks, and that they will be reduced to being in opposition for another four years in Congress. The least they should give their constituents is that simple truth.
But Sunday’s was not only a journey of defeat for the Liberals and the PDA. It was also one of great waste. The organization of the primaries cost Colombians 57 billion pesos (28 million dollars) in taxpayers’ money. That means that the price of each of the votes casted was a hefty 28,000 pesos. Most of the 23 million voting ballots that were printed for the election will, no doubt, have to be burnt, for they were unused.
Of course, both opposition parties had the right to call a primary election in order to choose their presidential candidates, but one wonders whether the effort and the resources spent will matter at all. If one knows that a specific action will render a meaningless, futile result, should one carry it out in any case? Even more, should one carry that action out knowing that one has to spend a lot of cash and bother many people (trust me, the polling officers were not happy to receive the letters in the mail saying they had to spend their Sunday at the polling station? Prudence, I believe, would answer ‘no’ to both questions.
But well, Colombia has to assume all that comes with being a democracy, both the good and the annoying bits, even if that means spending a little more money. Opposition parties and the minorities that constitute the bulk of their supporters have a right to participate in the political life of the nation. It is just somewhat sad to think that those 57 billion pesos could have been spent on other, more useful, badly needed, less pointless things.
So, once again, the Colombian voters have told the Liberal Party (which has veered sensibly toward the left) and the PDA (which is quintessentially left wing) that they are not interested in their message. Those two parties have once again been condemned through the ballot box to irrelevance in national politics. Since their opponents in ideology have been humiliated, Uribistas have cause to celebrate –- although they cannot really look confidently towards the future. In the coming months, they will fight each other in a nasty and bloody battle for the presidency. That, and not the dull stillness of this Sunday, will be the real highlight of this election. In the meantime, let us silently cheer for the defeat of the Liberals and the PDA. Silently, because we respect their pain, even if we rejoice with their misfortune.
George
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... This article is just silly. I cannot understand how you would include such a piece on your website. It seems like the author is a grade school student. |
Andrewmann552
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... Cano should also lament the destruction of Colombia's institutions. It is quite obvious now that the situation will look more and more like Mexico, a dictatorship only lacking being called as such. Uribe is turning Colombia into a paranoid, militarized state where he presents himself as the messiah strongman, much like the Peru of the 1990s with Fujimori. All that is left is the self-coup, unless you can count the current referendum proposal. |
gringo michae
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... okay I have to ask is there in the past a big turn out for primary elections? I know here in the States turn out is always low for primaries. also I was in Colombia until the 27th and in Medellin only saw any action by Pollo the week leading into the election other wise silent in Medellin, and the Liberals heard nothing other then a few TV ads the night before the election. saw I don't read much in the turnout or returns, but seems both [artues need to do more get out the vote work come May, I not a great fan of Uribe and rather like Petro , but then I can't vote in Colombia |
Laureles191
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... @Andrewmann Dictatorships usually start with political content being regulated (like Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea), not the case in Colombia. If you don't like Uribe, which many people don't, thats great, but dictator is not a word to be associated with Colombia in its present state |
Adriaan
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... @ George, Gustavo studies at Princeton. He graduated from high school a few years ago already. You are welcome to send in a column if you think you can do a better job. |
Andrewmann552
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... Laureles, political content is no regulated in Colombia? Are you serious? So the corporate media, owned by Uribes' friends, don't censor or regulate what the people are fed on the TV every night? Opponents to Uribe are not regularly labeled as FARC stooges? It is easy to slam Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea (which is such an extreme case it doesn't even fit in that kind of comparison), but the so-called "democracies" also need careful study. Colombia is very much like India as described by Arundhati Roy, a mirage of democracy masking a dictatorship of the corporate and military industrial complex. Somewhere in the slums and poor barrios of Colombia another Gaitan is no doubt being formed, someday he (or maybe even she) will capture the masses and end the Uribe era. |
totemv
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... I dont know how people can actually talk about our goverment being paranoid and mlitarized, when our neighboor in Venezuela is the one who spends milions in weaponry and sees every word or action from the US or Colombia as a menace, even when the matter is not directly realted to him. our army its mostly infantry (with excelent training but useless against air support and tanks) and most of the expenses in the military area goes to the police and the payments for retired personnel...is that a highly militarized country?? and if youre talking about the US bases, Im pretty sure they wont be used against colombians to make us "fear" the goverment like dictatorships actually do. |
Bluebird
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... I think that two factors are invoved here. The first, and the most tragic, is voter apathy.Sadly, people take for granted their right to particiapate in elections. The second, and the most significant for Colombia, is that, by and large, the great majority of the population understand that the empty promises espoused by the left may sound appealing to the poorest of the poor but ,at the end of the day, offer no workable, sustainable solutions. All three of the countries cited above are shining examples of what happens to a country after a socialist ( or communist) regime takes power and begins to destroy the freedoms and the very vibrancy of the country. I have said before that life is not perfect in Colombia (nor in any country) but take a look at what is going on next door in Venezuela....we won't even talk about life in Cuba or North Korea.......and it is very easy to understand why there is little or no interest in the left in Colombia. |
woodywoosucksgopol
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... @Andrewmann552 Mexico is a quasi-dictatorship? Really? FCH is politically at the weakest point of his presidency, political processes are in slow-motion ever since the opposition won the legislative majority in June, the military have no preeminent figure or remote interest in neither politics or the war against the cartels. While certain Mexican institutions are shaking under the stress of bureaucracy, corruption, nepotism and inability to restructure, the country's core government structure effectively maintains electoral cycles. All in all, Mexico is currently at its most democratic and most inefficient. Also, to the informed author, a good alternative would be to propose a change in the electoral law (might be trickier if that's also your constitution) that would enforce thresholds of participation for parties to be able to hold primaries. In the same way that the registry of parties in many countries depend on the voting count of the previous election, parties who can muster less than X% of the votes would have to go through a standard party appointment system. Of course the implications of dual systems on the general stability and credibility of the electoral system are complex and way too time-consuming for me to think about. Anyway, good article! |
Laureles191
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... @Andrewmann, Has Uribe shut down whole television networks because he didn't agree with the political content put forth by reporters? No, that was Chavez. Restrictions imposed by the Chavez regime on Venezuelans make anything in Colombia pale in comparison. So yes, I am serious, because I'm not going to classify some "Uribes friends corporate media scam theory" as evidence of government suppressing political content. In Colombia the law provides for freedom of speech, which is respected. The Board of the World of Association of Newspapers has condemned Chavez for putting forth legislation aimed at silencing the independant press. You can't say that because a certain corporate media is one-sided that freedom of speech is being impeded upon. Most corporate networks around the world lean or are falling to either one side or another. Try an argument with some unbiased factual basis, And I will seriously listen. |
Laureles191
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... And to Gustavo, your article was very well written (which I'm sure you know). I imagine George disagreed with your perspective and had nothing intelligible to add, so instead decided to act like a grade school student. |
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