The coalition supporting President Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia’s Senate on Wednesday elected Jose David Name as Congress president, a position he will take charge of on July 20.
Jose David Name received an especially high number of votes in his native Atlantico, where both he and his family are well known. His father, Liberal Party member Jose Name Teran, was known as a “cacique” of regional politics and clientelism, according to political blog La Silla Vacia.
The U Party is the party with the most seats in the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate, as well as being the party of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.
The U Party was debating between Armando Benedetti, Jose David Name, and Mauricio Lizcano, according to La Silla Vacía.
The Senate president position in Colombia rotates every year between parties of the ruling coalition, the latest Senate president being Liberal Party Senator Juan Fernando Cristo. The U Party also decided that Mauricio Lizcano would be the next Senate president during the next U Party turn in three years.
Name, from the northern city of Barranquilla in Atlantico, comes from a long line of politicians, and has served in the Senate since 2006, being re-elected in 2010 and 2014.