Colombia: International observers provide election reports

Bogotá (AP) — The Electoral Observation Mission of the European Union and the United States National Organization stated on Sunday that the legislative and presidential primaries held in Colombia were largely peaceful and the results were processed quickly, but there were logistical difficulties in the Registrar's office.

When I filed a report on the election on Tuesday, I made recommendations to the authorities, including including greater protection in areas where violence persists.

European Union observers “found numerous signs of buying votes and witnessed some cases” in “departments with the largest vulnerable population”, including, in particular, in the North and areas where seats were selected for victims.

On Sunday, 16 lawmakers were elected for the first time in the history of the country, according to one of the points agreed in the peace process signed between the state and the extinct revolutionary forces five years ago, representing more than 8 million victims of armed conflict in Colombia (FARC).

The Prosecutor's Office reported that 26 people were arrested for election crimes such as corruption of suffrage, fraudulent voting, and impersonation. In addition, during Election Day, 131 reports of possible electoral crimes were received for investigation.

Presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, the most voted candidate during the primary elections, asked for a new vote count on Tuesday when he warned the electoral authorities of fraud allegations at thousands of polling stations where his favourable vote “disappeared.”

The OAS observer mission continued to mention in its report that despite the government's efforts to mitigate violence, it was a “worrying phenomenon for the development of the electoral process”. Based on data from the Colombian Election Observation Mission, a civil society non-governmental organization, warned that 516 acts of violence against political and social leaders were recorded, “an increase of 98.5% compared to what was observed at the beginning of the 2018 elections.”

The OAS recommended that the state begin a plan to protect candidates a year before the election and increase resources for the security of victim-seat candidates in territories with illegal groups.

The European Union noted that although freedom of expression and freedom of speech were generally respected, it received information about self-censorship and blackmail by local journalists.

Although FARC, the oldest guerrilla in Latin America, gave up weapons, the violence in the country did not stop. Several armed groups persist, such as the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas, the FARC dissidents who abandoned the peace process, and the Gulf Clans dedicated to drug trafficking.

The Colombians elected 108 senators and 187 representatives from the House of Representatives. The left, led by Petro, gained unprecedented representation, the traditional political party remained, and the ruling Democratic Center was reduced. In addition, three presidential candidates were elected from three political blocks. The biggest vote was won by the left-wing Petro, followed by Federico Gutierrez to the right, followed by Sergio Fajardo's center.

Both the OAS and the European Union will conduct election supervision for the presidential election scheduled for May 29.