Ex-President and founder of the Democratic Center party Alvaro Uribe named losing presidential candidate Oscar Ivan Zuluaga as the new director of the party.
With Uribe set to become a Senator for the Democratic Center (Centro Democrático — CD), Zuluaga was unanimously voted as the new President of the CD, after a 10 hour meeting in Bogota to decide the path for the party, national radio Caracol reported.
Zuluaga will be in charge of carrying out and coordinating the legislative actions of the party as the new Congress takes office on July 20. Zuluaga will also act as the lead spokesman for the party,
Oscar Ivan Zuluaga lost the 2014 Presidential Elections with 45% of the vote to incumbent President and U Party candidate Juan Manuel Santos’ 50.95%.
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Uribe claimed massive fraud in the elections, and will present 133 cases of fraud on Thursday, according to national Blu Radio. The Minister of Justice and the Interior under Uribe, Fabio Valencia Cossio is in charge of presenting the alleged evidence against Santos.
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In the 2010 presidential elections, Santos had the tacit support of now his predecessor, although he quickly broke with Uribe after warming up to neighboring Venezuela and Ecuador.
Uribe started the Democratic Center in January 2013 and nominated Zuluaga as its candidate for the 2014 presidential elections. The CD triumphed in last March’s Congressional elections, where they won 20 Senate seats out of a possible 102. The success was not duplicated in the Chamber of Representatives, but by no means insignificant, with 12 out of 164 possible seats claimed.
Uribe’s party was formed after the former president felt increasingly pushed away from the power base that had delivered his 2002 presidency. Santos’ initiation of peace talks with the largest rebel group in Colombia, the FARC, in addition to the restoration of relations with neighboring Venezuela and Ecuador led to the split between the two former allies.