Colombian presidential election, 2002

In Colombia, found on May 28 instead of 2002 presidential elections in which independent candidate Álvaro Uribe Vélez was elected on the first ballot.

The term of office of the conservative President Andrés Pastrana Arango (1998-2002) was marked by the internal armed conflict and the peace negotiations between the government and the largest guerrilla group in the country, the FARC. As part of these negotiations, Pastrana had the FARC promised a " demobilized zone " the size of Switzerland, which officially was considered neutral negotiating territory, but very quickly became the refuge of the guerrilla troops intensified their attacks on the government forces out of the zone. In 2001, the breakdown of negotiations apparent already, and on 21 February 2002, the government broke off talks with the FARC.

According to political scientists and journalists changed by these failed negotiations and the new wave of violence, the public opinion; the call for a crackdown on the guerrilla movement was loud.

Candidates

Liberal Party

For the Liberal Party of Colombia joined as already in the 1998 election at the ex-Minister Horacio Serpa Uribe, who was in advance of the elections as a big favorite. When the internal party primaries in 2001 he was supposed to compete against the ex- minister Cecilia López Montaño, former Senator Julio César Turbay Quintero, son of former president Julio César Turbay Ayala, and the former governor of Antioquia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez. However, this came out because of ideological differences from the Liberal Party and stood as an independent candidate for election. A few weeks later Turbay and Montaño gave their abandonment of their candidacy so that Serpa was declared without prefix as the official candidate of the Liberal Party. Parts of the Liberal Party supported despite his party outlet Uribe.

Conservative Party

Since the re-election of the incumbent president Andrés Pastrana Arango was forbidden by the Constitution, the Conservative Party had to find a new majority capable candidates. First, the ex- Minister Noemi Sanín should be standing for election, which was withdrawn from the Conservative Party in 1998, and declined as an independent candidate of their movement Sí Colombia (Spanish: Yes, Colombia) took. The ex- Minister Humberto de la Calle, Member of the Liberal Party, declined to run for the Conservatives, after which the former Minister of Economic Development, Augusto Ramírez Ocampo official candidate of the Conservative Party was.

Ramírez Ocampo, however, was not particularly popular in his party still in the population. After polls showed that less than 1 % of the population would vote for him, he withdrew his candidacy. Carlos Holguín Sardi party leader then called for nominations for new internal party primaries, in which ultimately the ex-Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo prevailed by a large majority against the former minister Marino Jaramillo and the completely unknown candidate Francisco Tovar.

As an independent candidate Uribe shortly before the election in all the polls was in the lead, Restrepo withdrew his candidacy and the conservative party supported Uribe, although he had the government of the incumbent conservative President repeatedly criticized harshly.

Álvaro Uribe Vélez ( independent)

The former governor of Antioquia approached with a primarily security- oriented policy program for election, in which he promised tough action against the guerrilla movement. Other election promises were the reduction of public spending and the announcement of a referendum on key political and economic issues. His candidacy was officially supported from the beginning of 2002 by the Conservative Party; also supported him parts of the Liberal Party.

First, Uribe was in the polls behind the Liberal candidate Serpa and the independent candidate Sanín third. However, when it became apparent the end of 2001 the failure of the peace negotiations with the FARC, he became more popular. Shortly after the end of the negotiations was Uribe nine percentage points ahead of Serpa.

From various quarters, including from its competitors Serpa Uribe was alleged to have made ​​contact with the paramilitary groups in Antioquia Governor in his time. These accusations were reinforced by some paramilitaries uttered their support for Uribe. In addition, relationships with members of the Medellin cartel he was accused of. It could, however, be assigned any of these allegations.

Uribe's candidate for the office of Vice- President, who is also elected in Colombia in the presidential election, Francisco Santos Calderón was, after his abduction by Pablo Escobar, the anti - kidnapping NGO Fundación País Libre had founded (Spanish Foundation free country ). Santos family is known nationwide as the owner of the largest Colombian daily El Tiempo, and as a traditional supporter of the Liberal Party.

Noemi Sanín ( independent)

The ex - minister, who was a candidate in 1998 as independents and had leaked out to the Conservative Party, was in the polls long second only to Horacio Serpa and before Álvaro Uribe, however, achieved in the elections just over 5%.

Left Party

For the newly formed Left Party Polo Democrático Independiente (Spanish: Independent Democratic Pole ) joined the former union leader and former mayor of Bogotá, Luis Eduardo Garzón, at. Garzón was indeed in the capital a popular politician; But he failed to unite the different groups of politically left wing nationwide.

For the fledgling Green Party Oxígeno Verde (Spanish: Green Oxygen ) came to their founder Íngrid Betancourt. The former Senator of French descent reached in the polls, only very low levels but drew attention to himself by their directed against the traditional party system elections.

On the way to a campaign event in San Vicente del Caguán, Caquetá, where the peace negotiations with the FARC guerrilla group took place, Betancourt was kidnapped on 23 February 2002 by the FARC. She was until July 2, 2008 in the hands of the largest guerrilla group in the country.

Other

The ex-general Harold Bedoya Pizarro entered as an independent candidate with a program in which security policy played the biggest role. All other candidates achieved together in the election less than 0.5% of the vote.

Election result

In the election on 28 May 2002 Álvaro Uribe was elected with 53 % of the vote as the first President of Colombia in the first round of voting. International election observers called the election process itself as largely fair, but complained about the threats (AUC ) had been out in favor of sides of the guerrilla movement (FARC, ELN ) and the paramilitaries. The voter turnout was 47 %, slightly lower than in the previous presidential election.