Fifteen Conservative Party senators met with Partido de la U’s presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday evening to discuss the possibility of joining his campaign for the Colombian presidency, reports El Tiempo.
The senators said they were concerned about Conservative Party presidential candidate Noemi Sanin‘s drop the polls, as well as her “hostile attitude” during a live debate between presidential candidates held last Sunday.
Senator Oscar Fernando Bravo said he and some of his colleagues didn’t understand why Sanin “clashed with Santos when he is our only potential ally in [the case of] a second round.”
Before meeting with Santos, a group of 20 senators met in the House of Representatives chambers to examine the situation.
Sanin’s supporters asked the dissidents not to divide the party.
“One cannot run off into the night, when there are still 45 days of campaigning left, you need to have a cool head,” said Congressman Telesforo Pedraza.
The dissident Conservatives, who supported unsuccessful presidential candidate Andres Felipe Arias in the party primaries, will reveal what course of action they decided to take to the Conservative Party’s National Directory today.
Aria has not backed Sanin in her presidential campaign after losing to her in the primaries, and the two have publically clashed.
Almost 100 Conservative Party members have already jumped ship and moved to Santos’ camp.
Colombia will go to the polls May 30 to elect a new president. If one candidate does not win outright with a “50% plus one” share of the vote, then the two candidates who receive the highest number of votes will move onto a second round of elections.