The last Congressional vote on the referendum on the re-election of
president Alvaro Uribe was delayed even more Wednesday, when the
Senate’s Ethics Commission was asked to dismiss Senate President Hernan
Andrade from appointing members of the commission to vote on the issue,
because of his open support of the re-election.
Earlier, the Ethics Commission of the House of Representatives was Asked to dismiss German Varon for his open opposition to the re-election. Even though the Partido de la U, the party that had requested the dismissal withdrew their request, the House President insisted on a verdict of the Ethics Commission.
The request led to unrest in De la U and to representatives asking members of that party to be dismissed from the Ethics Commission while voting on the dismissal of the President.
The House Ethics Commission eventually voted that Varon could appoint the House’s members that would vote for the re-election referendum.
The Senate’s Ethics Commission will meet Thursday about the request to dismiss Andrade.
The referendum demanding a constitutional change that would allow Uribe to serve a third consecutive term in office has caused several controversies already. The Supreme Court is currently investigating 86 members of the coalition in the House for allegedly illegally approving the referendum, while there still were doubts about possible illegal funding of the project.