The Democratic Center (CD) said Monday that its leading presidential candidate, Miguel Uribe (no relation), has been excluded from the far-right party’s increasingly chaotic primary.
In a press statement, the party said that presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella had called the CD’s leader, former President Alvaro Uribe (no relation), to inform him that the presidential hopeful “resigned from the Democratic Center to support Mr. De la Espriella.”
The CD said that it “appreciates the honesty of Mr. De la Espriella, and will continue the process with primary candidates Maria Fernanda Cabal, Paloma Valencia and Paola Holguin.”
In a response, Uribe the candidate said he never talked to the rival politician and refused to resign from or be dismissed by the party.
It is unacceptable that I am excluded from a process of which I am a part, based on press reports or telephone calls.
Miguel Uribe
An anonymous ally of Uribe told political news website La Silla Vacia that the former candidate did call De la Espriella, but only to express his support for a united anti-left candidate.
Sources from within the CD told the website that their leading candidate was ditched because the party’s leading members were “fed up” with the Uribe, whose short political career was marred by clashes with his rivals in the impending primary elections.
Everyone was fed up, the congressional caucus was fed up. We were dealing with a man who thought he was the boss here, who was doing whatever he wanted with the party.
Anonymous CD member
Uribe joined the race in August after the death of his son, Senator Miguel Uribe, who succumbed from injuries sustained in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Bogota.
Like his son, the ditched candidate clashed almost constantly with other primary candidates over the mechanism that would allow the CD to propose a candidate for a multipartite primary in March.
The internal tensions ruined the far-right party’s plans to hold a primary in October.
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