Colombian expats vote in presidential election

Colombian consulates and embassies around the world reported that the voting process was free of disturbances in the second round of the Colombian presidential election on Sunday.

The Consular Affairs Director of the Colombian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Juan Jose Paez, said that everything functioned normally in the over 60 countries where voting took place.

Voting booths in Japan and Singapore closed just as voting was beginning in Colombia, making the Colombian residents living in those countries the election’s first voters.

In the United States alone, there were 333 separate voting locations for the 154,000 Colombians able to vote there.

According to data given by the Colombian Embassy in Spain, 13.6% of registered voters living that country took the time to vote, thousands fewer than voted in the first round of the presidential elections.

In South Africa, World Cup fever and a low number of polling stations combined to keep turnout low for the Colombians living there. Consul Miguel Angel Hernandez said that he knew of various Colombians who had decided to go to the Brazil-Cote d’Ivoire game instead of voting.

In Venezuela, the foreign country with the second-highest number of registered Colombian voters after the United States, about 29,000 out of 115,000 nationals went to the polls, at 60 different locations across the country.

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