(Photo: El Frente)
Elections

Over half of Colombia’s armed forces will be on active duty during presidential election

by Alexandra Jolly

Colombia’s Defense Ministry released a report on Friday stating that there will be over 240,000 servicemen and women working on Sunday to ensure a safe and peaceful presidential election.

Juan Carlos Pinzon, Colombia’s Minister of Defense, released a statement that 246,000 members of the armed forces will be present across Colombia during the presidential elections on May 25 in order to deal with any emergency which may arise.

According to Pinzon, “the manpower available for this year’s elections represent an increase of almost 65% in the deployment of military forces and police compared to the 2010 elections,” reported Santa Fe Radio.

The Ministry of Defense also took to twitter to confirm the levels security which will be available during the elections:

Pinzon added that these security forces will cover 99.52% of the polling stations across the country and “with these efforts in standardized security as well as logistic and intelligence plans that are underway, we can ensure that more than 14 million Colombians who can vote will exercise their right to vote.”

Deployment of armed forces is already underway with over 80,000 thousand members of the Colombian Army, Navy and Air Force being sent out across Colombia to ensure peace in the run up to the election.

Additionally, Colombia’s National Police will have over 165,000 men and women working on election day.

Public order measures have also been put in place such as restricting the carrying of firearms between 12.00 AM on Friday, May 23 until 6.00 AM on Wednesday, May 28. There will also be a “dry law” in place, limiting the buying and consumption of alcohol from 6.00 PM on Saturday, May 24 until 6.00 AM on Monday, May 26.

For its part, the Prosecutor General’s technical investigation team (CTI) will have a group of 116 officials working to stop reported electoral offenses and a team of 9,000 will be in place at the polling stations in order to prevent electoral fraud.

Sources