Colombia’s former Finance Minister Oscar Ivan Zuluaga on Wednesday officially announced his candidacy for the primaries of the Pure Democratic Center movement of former President Alvaro Uribe.
Zuluaga had previously expressed his interest to run in the 2014 presidential elections as candidate with the support of Uribe, whose political control in national politics has been usurped by his predecessor Juan Manuel Santos.
PROFILE: Oscar Ivan Zuluaga
In his announcement, Zuluaga said his basic election proposal would consist of five points.
- Security and justice
- Education and youth
- Decentralized economic development
- Health reform
- Corruption
In an interview with Colombia Reports earlier this week, Zuluaga had already expressed his objection to a possible reelection of President Juan Manuel Santos, who changed his cabinet to prepare for “the reelection of his peace policies” next year.
MORE: Lack of ‘democratic security’ reason enough not to reelect Santos: Zuluaga
Uribe, Zuluaga’s ally and Santos’ main political adversary, was not able to assist at the meeting in a Bogota religious center, but sent a video message in which he supported his former minister’s candidacy.
The event was attended by some 700 people.
If Zuluaga wants to win the elections, the politician will first have to increase his popularity as according to pollster Gallup Zuluaga is still virtually unknown among Colombians; in their latest poll, the former minister had an approval rating of 15 and a disapproval rating of 12, indicating that 73% of Colombians do not know who he is or have no opinion about him.
Colombia will take to the poll in the early summer of 2014. Before that, most political parties will hold primaries to determine who will represent them in the elections.