The leader of the Liberal Party on Thursday invited fellow opposition party Polo Democratico to begin discussions regarding the formation of a “New Progressive Majority.”
In a letter sent to the Polo Democratico leader, presidential candidate and Liberal Party leader Rafael Pardo publicly announced that his proposed New Progressive Majority was not seeking to unify the different parties but to form a coalition based on common purposes.
One of the primary aims of Pardo’s proposal is the formation of a large, unified opposition to the current president, Alvaro Uribe, who is hoping to run for a second consecutive re-election in the March 2010 elections.
Pardo’s letter stated the importance of the “defence of democracy, and for this reason it is clear that Colombia needs new leadership that is built on a new consensus,” reported newspaper El Espectador.
Pardo concluded the letter with the statement that, using the powers granted him by the Liberal Party at their national congress last weekend which unanimously elected him presidential candidate and sole party leader, he was now extending an invitation to Polo Democratico to begin discussing the proposition.