Colombia Elections 2022: Uribismo sinks at the expense of a left that grows in Congress

The Historical Pact, which brings together the bulk of the left of Colombiawon this Sunday 17 seats in the Senate and 25 in the House of Representatives in legislative elections in which the big loser was the Uribista Democratic Center, until now the main political force in the country.

The leftist movement channeled into the polls citizen nonconformity in the face of the government’s economic and social policies, expressed in last year’s protests, as well as the scandals that are daily bread in the hemicycle.

However, the victory is not complete because the Historical Pact will have to deal with a Congress in which the right, fragmented into six parties, will continue to be the majority and in which it will have to seek alliances with the Alianza Verde Coalition and Centro Esperanza -with 14 seats in the Upper House- to counterbalance them.

Precisely in the Senate vote, the traditional Conservative and Liberal parties won 15 seats each, the Democratic Center 14, Radical Change 11, the U Party 10 and the Mira-Colombia Justa Libres Coalition 4.

The elections were also the first in which the 16 Special Transitory Circumscriptions of Peace (CITREP) were elected, a mechanism designed so that 16 victims from the rural areas most affected by the conflict can enter the House of Representatives.

HISTORICAL MOMENT FOR THE LEFT

With 96.03% of the tables counted, the closed list to the Senate of the Historical Pact obtained 2,246,024 voteswhile for the different lists of this movement to the Chamber, with 95.85% of the informed tables, paid 2,475,953 citizens.

The growth of the left was substantial, because in the last elections, for example, the alternative movements -Democratic Pole and the List of Decency- obtained 1.2 million votes for the Senate and 815,381 for the House of Representatives.

The flags of Historical Pact They will be raised, among others, by congressmen such as María José Pizarro, Alexander López, Aida Avella, Roy Barreras and Iván Cepeda, as well as by new names including the social leader Isabel Zuleta, the administrator Esmeralda Hernández or the activist María Fernanda Carrascal .

DECAY OF URIBISM AND RADICAL CHANGE

Although the candidate for Democratic Center Miguel Uribe Turbay, former Secretary of the Government of Bogotá, was the most voted of all the candidates for the Senate with 218,909 ballots, Uribismo experienced its lowest hours in these elections.

This party will go from being the predominant force, with 19 senators, to occupy, until now, the discreet fifth place with only 14. So abrupt is the fall of the Democratic Center that in these elections it obtained 1.8 million votes, almost 700,000 less than four years ago.

Uribismo did not do well in the Chamber either, as it lost 17 seats by going from 32 representatives to 15 in these electionswhich shows the discredit of the Government of President Iván Duque.

The other big loser on the right was Radical changeparty led by former vice president German Vargas Lleras and that he barely got 11 seats in the Senate and 16 in the Lower House.

THE NEWS DID NOT ARRIVE

Another of the surprises of the day was experienced in the awnings of the New Liberalismparty founded by assassinated Liberal leader Luis Carlos Galan and that only a few months ago it recovered its legal personality after more than 20 years in limbo, but that it will not win any seat in the Senate as it does not reach the threshold of 3% of the total votes.

Among their candidates were the journalist Mabel Larathe former ombudsman Carlos Negret and the political scientist Sandra Bordaas well as the former senator Carlos Fernando Galan.

The only consolation of New Liberalism the thing is environmentalist Julia Miranda, former director of National Natural Parks, got a position as representative to the Chamber for Bogotá.

the leftist movement Citizen Force He also did not get enough votes to reach the Senate, although the 429,501 votes he got left him close to 3%, reaching 2.7 of the total.

The feminists of Somos Listas will not reach Congress either, the toilets of SOS Colombia, the citizens of Gente Nueva, the conservative National Salvation Movement and the esoteric Unitary Metapolitical Movement.

CONTROVERSY IN THE CIRCUMSCRIPTIONS OF PEACE

The controversy of the day is starred by Jorge Tovar, son of the former paramilitary “Jorge 40”, who leads the results in the special district of peace number 12, which would allow them to occupy a seat in the House of Representatives destined for victims of the armed conflict in the north of Colombia.

This candidacy was questioned from the beginning because Tovar will occupy a place destined for the victims, being the descendant of a perpetratorbut even so, the electoral authorities maintained his candidacy since he is also recognized as a victim of the guerrillas.

However, his case is not the only one, since throughout the campaign alleged irregularities or shortcomings with which the process has had to deal have been reported, such as lack of funding or insecurity. to face the candidates.

It has also been denounced that the traditional parties put candidates among the victims to increase their power in the lower house.

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