Liberal Party leader Rafael Pardo wants electoral authorities to recount the votes cast in Valle de Cauca in Sunday’s election, following an exceptionally good result of the controversial National Integration Party (PIN) in the department.
Pardo noted that the PIN has a much higher number of votes in the region than it does nationally, and that this higher percentage of the vote is “inexplicable.”
Numbers provided by the Registrar provide evidence for this view. In the national vote totals, PIN came in fourth place with about eight percent of the vote. However, PIN received a much higher 18 percent of the vote in the Valle, coming in second place there.
As previously reported, PIN is shrouded in controversy for being filled with the family members and friends of congressmen who are in jail or under investigation for links with paramilitary gangs.
Pardo noted that the “parapolitics” scandal from four years ago started the exact same way, with atypical vote counts from parties and politicians that had links to paramilitary groups.
“We can’t allow the Valle de Cauca to be identified as the department of PIN,” he said. He also criticized the department’s governor, Juan Carlos Abadia, saying that “he had forgotten to govern in order to officiate as the political boss of PIN.” The governor is technically a member of the Por un Valle Seguro party.