The coalition seems to be split in two camps; Those sticking with Uribe and those abandoning the Uribe camp and bringing forth their own candidate.Partido de La U and the smaller Equipo Colombia stay loyal to Uribe and want to help force a second re-election. The gathering of signatures is facilitated by the Partido de la U.The Conservative Party and the Radical Change party, both big players in current Colombian politics, already have mentioned presenting their own candidates.The main opposition parties, the Liberal Party and Polo Democrático, also have gone their own way. Their had been talks about presenting a united candidate, but those talks failed.Polo, one of the few parties unaffected by the parapolitics scandal, but fearing it won’t be able to win the upcoming election, proposed to prolongue the current administration’s time till 2012 as an alternative to a second re-election.The Liberal Party has already begun looking internally for their candidate and oppose any constitutional change, enabling Uribe to stay in the Casa Nariño any longer than the current term. They seemingly bet on the possibility the constitutional change won’t make it and Uribe’s successor, most likely to be Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, won’t be able to maintain unity within the coalition or be able to receive the popular support uribe currently enjoys.Uribe himself has not mentioned admiring a third term yet, but has also not stopped his supporters from continuing to gather autographs. He still has two years to see how strong and persistent his popular base is and force a constitutional change.
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