Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers (FNC) is finishing preparations for the labor-union elections that will take place in early September, local media reported on Tuesday.
Close to 370 thousand coffee growers across Colombia will participate in the FNC elections, which will elect 4,608 representatives in 368 municipal committees throughout 15 states, according to Colombia’s El Espectador newspaper.
The elections, which occur every four years, will take place between September 6 and 7 of this year. Election candidates will be able to register themselves between June 28 and July 28.
Around 14,000 candidates from the various coffee growing regions will look to participate in the elections.
“These elections are the biggest of any growers in the world,” said Juan Carlos Galindo, manager of the coffee grower elections.
Growers are eligible to vote if they own a coffee crop that is at least 2.5 acres in size with 1,500 planted coffee trees, according to the Federation’s official website. Similarly, they must possess a federation coffee-growing ID (Intelligent Coffee ID).
Coffee growers without the Intelligent Coffee ID but who wished to vote in the upcoming elections were given until June 21 to submit the required documents to their regional coffee-grower committee, Neiva’s Diario del Huila reported.
“The FNC acts across diverse fronts in order to reach its mission of improving the quality of life of the Colombian coffee growers,” the FNC official website reads. “One of our main goals is to maintain an effective and federated representation, in order to defend the interests of Colombian coffee growers both domestically and internationally.”
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Luis Genaro Muñoz, Director of the FNC, remarked that in past elections the re-election of municipal representatives was larger than 50% of the total electoral results, according to El Espectador. Re-election rates for municipal committees was similarly high at 37%.
Sources
- Cerca de 370 mil caficultores están habilitados para las elecciones del gremio (El Espectador)
- Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC official website)
- Sin cédula cafetera no se puede votar en elecciones del gremio (Diario del Huila)