Vote-Buying and Front Men, an article from March, 2010

Vote-Buying and Front Men
By Javier Darío Restrepo*

BOGOTÁ, Mar 16, 2010 (IPS) - During Sunday's legislative elections in Colombia - in which rightwing President Álvaro Uribe's allies were the big winners - polling stations in one-third of the country's municipalities were at risk of violence, corruption or fraud, according to the ombudsman's office and election observers, who reported vote-buying and pressure on voters.

Some of the public were also alarmed at the appearance of the National Integration Party (PIN), a reincarnation of the National Democratic Alliance (ADN) party, which was banned by the electoral court due to irregularities.

The organisers of the controversial ADN are in prison or under investigation for their ties to the far-right paramilitary militias, which are accused of heavy involvement in the drug trade as well as appalling human rights abuses in this South American country that has been in the grip of an armed conflict since 1964.

The legislative polls drew attention worldwide not only because they were seen as an indication of voter intention for the May elections - in which Uribe would have won a third term hands down, according to opinion polls, if the courts had not thwarted attempts last month to modify the constitution to allow him to stand again - but also because of scandals that have surrounded Congress for years.

As an editorial in the El Espectador newspaper put it, "Over the last eight years, Congress has been caught up in the worst crisis in its history."

There have been corruption scandals involving legislators swapping votes for government contracts or public posts, as well as the so-called "parapolitics" scandal in which one-third of the members of Congress have either been arrested or investigated since 2006 for alleged ties to the paramilitary groups.

According to a report by the Bogotá think tank Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, 13 of the candidates on the electoral list of the U party are currently under investigation in the scandal, as well as 11 from the Conservative Party, six from ALAS and five from Radical Change - all of which form part of Uribe's governing coalition - and five from the opposition Liberal Party.

Despite the legal prosecutions, many politicians have found a way to maintain their influence through relatives or friends who act as their front men.

Controlling Congress through others is an old practice that was used by druglords like the late Pablo Escobar (1949-1993) of the Medellín cartel, Gilberto and Miguel Rodríguez of the Cali cartel, and paramilitary chief Salvatore Mancuso, who shocked the country when he boasted that the paramilitaries controlled 30 percent of Congress.

The Rodríguez brothers and Mancuso are in prison in the United States, to which they were extradited along with other paramilitary chiefs on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

Columnist Hernando Gómez Buendía said the next president would basically be picked in Sunday's elections, in which the big winner was the U Party, led by former defence minister Juan Manuel Santos.

The U Party's strong showing Sunday prompted Santos, the poll favourite for the upcoming presidential elections, to declare that "Today the U party has won - the party of President Uribe."

According to government spokespersons, the elections were the smoothest and calmest in 30 years.

But foreign observers reported that vote-buying and fraud was as bad as, or worse than, in the last elections. They also denounced undue pressure on voters, such as the threat of blocking poor voters' access to health care if they did not cast their ballots for a given candidate.

More:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50686

I feel certain that this article was published before the big developements in the campaign emerged concerning Antanas Mockus.
This information would confirm why it's even more important that the far better man wins this thing!