Residents were dancing in the streets of Turbaco on Tuesday night after Barack Obama’s mock land-slide victory in this tiny Colombian village was succeeded by his reelection as president of the U.S.
The northern Colombian village held for the second-year running a mock election where a remarkable 3075 people turned out to “vote” in the US presidential race between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.
According to the newspaper El Tiempo, Obama once again swept the polls with a 90.6% victory, although the margin fell below last year’s victory of 94.8% over John McCain.
News of Obama’s “real” victory in the U.S. sparked spectacular scenes of celebration among the residents of Turbaco including former mayor Silvio Carrasquilla, who is the person responsible for the mock elections.
In 2008 he created the first ever unofficial U.S elections in this predominantly Afrocolombian village and even went to the lengths of building an unofficial Democratic Party campaign center in the Caribbean town.
Carrasquilla said after the victory. “Thank God we get what we announced, we gave him [Romney] a beating.”
The celebrations were enjoyed by everyone including Obama’s campaign mascot “Demo” – the local donkey, who was offered to the president as a gift in April.
Carrasquilla, who personally counted the votes himself, added. “It is already clear that there is no place in the world where they want Obama more than Turbaco”