Colombian presidential election, 2010
The presidential elections in Colombia in 2010 were held in May and June 2010. With this option, the current president Álvaro Uribe did not occur, since he was not allowed to run for a third term in office due to the rejection of a constitutional amendment by the Colombian Constitutional Court. In the first round of voting on May 30 no candidate received more than 50 % of the vote. The Uribe related former defense minister Juan Manuel Santos and Antanas Mockus of the Green politicians, A former mayor of the capital Bogota, received the highest share of the vote and for the year ended June 20 run-off election, won with 69.1 percent of the votes in the Santos.
Starting position
In the Colombian presidential elections in 2006, the previous incumbent, Álvaro Uribe Vélez was re-elected in the first ballot with 62.2 % of the vote, having previously had a constitutional amendment to enforce, which allowed a second term Colombian president. Uribe is thus the first re-elected President of Colombia in 2010 and tried to seek a new constitutional amendment needed to a third term. Luis Guillermo Giraldo, president of the pro- Uribe party Partido de la U announced in 2007 to collect a supporters committee signatures to reach a referendum, whether it should be allowed Uribe to seek a third term. In September 2009, the Colombian Congress approved in a boycotted by members of the opposition vote, the referendum law. The referendum and the desired constitutional amendment was rejected by the Colombian constitutional court on February 26, 2010 in a 7- to-2 decision. Thus came the election on 30 May 2010 only new candidates.
Candidates
Immediately after the court's decision was confirmed by the former defense minister Juan Manuel Santos that he would stand as a presidential candidate. Another candidate was Germán Vargas Lleras uribistischer of the Party Cambio Radical, who was previously Ambassador of Colombia in the UK. Two other close allies of Uribe, Noemi Sanín and former Agriculture Minister Andres Felipe Arias, and Álvaro Leyva Durán, an opponent of Uribe, sought a nomination by the Partido Conservador Colombiano, was eventually nominated by the Sanín.
From parties of the parliamentary opposition Rafael Pardo competed for the social democratic Partido Liberal and Gustavo Petro of the Polo Democrático Independiente. On 2 October 2009, with initially three former mayor of the Colombian capital Bogotá Enrique Peñalosa, Antanas Mockus and Luis Eduardo Garzón, along with other which is understood as a post- uribistisch green Partido Verde and stood 14 March 2010 a nomination vote their party, from Antanas Mockus of emerged as the winner and was nominated as a presidential candidate. Sergio Fajardo, former mayor of Medellín, joined him on March 5, 2010 as the vice presidential candidate on after he could not reach the conditions for their own candidacy.
Antanas Mockus
Noemi Sanín
Germán Vargas Lleras
Rafael Pardo
Surveys
Polls of various pollsters indicated initially to a duel in a second round of voting between Juan Manuel Santos and Noemi Sanín, both are in the tradition of Uribe, back. As of April 2010, however, the leaf and the green Antanas Mockus, who was a distant second in the previous presidential election in 2006 with 1.24% applied, got strong in polls.
Results
First ballot
Juan Manuel Santos won well ahead of Antanas Mockus the first ballot, but missed the absolute majority.
Results in detail:
- Juan Manuel Santos - 46.56 %
- Antanas Mockus - 21.49 %
- Germán Vargas Lleras - 10.13%
- Gustavo Petro - 9.15%
- Noemi Sanín - 6.14%
- Rafael Pardo - 4.38%
Second round
The decision on the new President of Colombia was made on 20 June 2010 in a runoff between Juan Manuel Santos and Antanas Mockus, Santos which could clearly decide for themselves. Overall, Santos was therefore recorded 69.1 percent of the vote. Mockus reached 27.5 percent. The turnout was less than 45 percent. Accordingly, it was Juan Manuel Santos new 7 August 2010 President of Colombia.
Irregularities and incidents
The election monitoring commission in Colombia MOE ( Misión de Observación Electora ) informed on Election Day in a preliminary report that there had been in the first four hours to 51 incidents, including for cases of vote-buying in favor of the candidate Juan Manuel Santos. However, vote-buying was a significantly lesser extent than in the last elections in Colombia on 14 March.