Following recent rumors that Colombian president Álvaro Uribe has
chosen not to run for a third term if given the possibility, two
important members of allying parties claimed that anything is still
possible.
Partido de la U senator Gabriel Zapata Correa said that only the president himself can decide whether to run or not.
“What the president said is that other presidential pre-candidates should give it a try, so a consensus can be found on who should represent the ‘Uribismo’ movement. But he never rejected the possibility of running himself,” the senator explained.
The politician also criticized current candidates, saying that up til now he has only seen “Uribe imitators”. Zapata invited those that may be even better than the president to stop being cowards and act instead.”
In an interview with Caracol Radio, presidential assessor José Obdulio Gaviria basically agreed with Zapata’s point of view.
“I don’t have any information that would justify the constant claims that the chief of state rejected a second re-election,” he said.
Earlier Thursday, Medellín-based newspaper El Colombiano reported that Uribe had decided to not run for the 2010 Presidency.