Colombian presidential election, 2002

Last updated
Colombian presidential election, 2002
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←  1998 26 May 2002 2006  →
Turnout 46.5% Decrease2.svg 12.5%

  Alvaro Uribe (cropped).jpg HoracioSerpa (cropped).png
Nominee Álvaro Uribe Horacio Serpa
Party Colombia First Liberal
Home state Antioquia Santander
Running mate Francisco Santos Calderón José Gregorio Hernández Galindo
Popular vote 5,862,655 3,514,779
Percentage 54.0% 32.4%

Colombian Presidential Election Results, 2002.svg

Results by Department
President before election

Andrés Pastrana Arango
Conservative

Elected President

Álvaro Uribe
Colombia First

Colombia
Coat of arms of Colombia.svg
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Colombia

Presidential elections were held in Colombia on 26 May 2002. [1] Álvaro Uribe, the candidate of the recently created Colombia First movement, was elected, receiving 54% of the vote by the first round. [2] Uribe took office on 7 August. [3]

Colombia Country in South America

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a sovereign state largely situated in the northwest of South America, with territories in Central America. Colombia shares a border to the northwest with Panama, to the east with Venezuela and Brazil and to the south with Ecuador and Peru. It shares its maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Colombia is a unitary, constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments, with the capital in Bogota.

Álvaro Uribe Colombian lawyer and politician

Álvaro Uribe Vélez is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010.

Colombia First was a non-profit foundation and later conservative political movement in Colombia which supported the candidacy of Álvaro Uribe in the 2002 and 2006 presidential elections.

Contents

Background

In 1998, Andrés Pastrana, the Colombian Conservative Party's candidate was elected to the presidency on a platform of holding peace negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas. After over three years of tortuous dialogues - while the conflict continued unabated in the rest of the country - Pastrana announced on February 20, 2002 that he was ending the peace process with the FARC. Over this complicated period, public opinion radicalized in favour of a strong military strategy to end the Colombian armed conflict. [4]

Colombian Conservative Party traditional political party in Colombia

The Colombian Conservative Party is a conservative political party in Colombia. The party was formally established in 1849 by Mariano Ospina Rodríguez and José Eusebio Caro.

The FARC-Government peace process (1999–2002), from January 7, 1999, to February 20, 2002, was a failed peace process between the Government of President Andrés Pastrana Arango and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group in an effort to bring to an end the ongoing Colombian armed conflict.

Candidates

Conservative Party

In 2001, the governing coalition - composed of the Conservative Party and dissident Liberals - which had carried Pastrana to the presidency in 1998 began looking for a candidate to carry the coalition into the 2002 elections. Former Vice President and Minister of the Interior Humberto de La Calle, a dissident Liberal, was approached but he declined, arguing that the candidacy should go to a Conservative. The Minister of Economic Development, Augusto Ramírez Ocampo, resigned his portfolio to seek the presidency, but he later failed to obtain Conservative support because of his low support in the polls. [5]

Colombian Liberal Party political party

The Colombian Liberal Party is a centrist and social liberal political party in Colombia. It was founded as a classical liberal party but later developed a more social-democratic tradition, joining the Socialist International in 1999.

Vice President of Colombia Utow

The Vice President of Colombia is the first in the presidential line of succession, becoming the new President of Colombia upon leave of absence or death, resignation, or removal of the president, as designated by the Colombian Constitution of 1991 which also reinstated the vice president figure after almost a century of being abolished during the presidency of Rafael Núñez. The vice president cannot assume presidential functions on temporary absences of the president such as official trips abroad or vacations. In these cases, the president delegates functions to a cabinet member, usually the Minister of the Interior. Marta Lucía Ramírez is the current vice president.

Augusto Ramírez Ocampo was a Colombian politician who served as Mayor of Bogotá from 1982 to 1984, and Colombia's foreign minister from 1984 to 1986. Ocampo died in Bogotá on 14 June 2011, aged 76.

Following Ramírez Ocampo's withdrawal, the party's president, Carlos Holguín Sardi organized an internal consultation among the over 16,000 delegates in the national convention. Some members of the party wished to offer the candidacy to Noemí Sanín (a former Conservative who had run as an independent in the 1998 election, placing third in the first round), but she declined, opting to continue her independent candidacy. As a result, her supporters within the party's ranks decided not to participate in the internal consultation and join her campaign directly. Three candidates registered to participate in the Conservative primary, the favourite and eventual winner by a large margin was Juan Camilo Restrepo. Restrepo, who had lost the 1998 Conservative candidacy to Pastrana, had later served in Pastrana's cabinet as Minister of Finance (1998-2000), where his austere measures against the economic crisis made him unpopular and led to his appointment as Colombia's ambassador to France. [6] [7]

Carlos Holguín Sardi was the 64th and 54th Governor of Valle del Cauca. A Conservative party politician, he served as the 3rd Minister of the Interior and Justice of Colombia from 2006 to 2008, and as the 20th Minister of Communications of Colombia from 1973 to 1974.

Noemí Sanín Colombian diplomat

Marta Noemí del Espíritu Santo Sanín Posada is a Colombian-born politician and diplomat. She was the Conservative party candidate in the 2010 Colombian presidential election.

Liberal Party

The official candidate of the Liberal Party was Horacio Serpa, who had already been the party's candidate in the 1998 election. [8] Despite being a polarizing figure, Serpa entered the election as the favourite. [9]

Horacio Serpa Colombian politician

Horacio Serpa Uribe is a Colombian lawyer, politician and current Senator of Colombia. Serpa has run as the Colombian Liberal Party candidate for President of Colombia on three occasions; in 1998, 2002, and 2006. He previously served as congressman for Santander as Senator, Inspector General of Colombia, president of the National Constituent Assembly, Minister of the Interior, and as Ambassador of Colombia to the Organization of American States. He was also involved in the 8000 process scandal in which money from the Cali Cartel entered the presidential campaign of Liberal candidate Ernesto Samper. In 2007 Serpa ran for the governorship of Santander Department and was elected on October, 28 in the Colombian regional elections.

Álvaro Uribe's independent candidacy

Álvaro Uribe, the former Liberal governor of Antioquia (1995-1997), entered the race as a strong opponent of the peace talks with the FARC, but originally suffered from low name recognition against other better-known candidates. Uribe declined to participate in a Liberal primary, citing the lack of guarantees, and instead launched an independent candidacy (by collecting signatures from voters to win ballot access) with the backing of the Colombia First (Primero Colombia) movement. [10]

Antioquia Department Department in Andean Region, Colombia

The Department of Antioquia is one of the 32 departments of Colombia, located in the central northwestern part of Colombia with a narrow section that borders the Caribbean Sea. Most of its territory is mountainous with some valleys, much of which is part of the Andes mountain range. Antioquia has been part of many territorial divisions of former countries created over the present day territory of Colombia, and prior to the Colombian Constitution of 1886, Antioquia State had its own sovereign government.

Uribe entered the field taking a hardline position against the peace talks with the FARC, arguing that peace talks should only be held following the cessation of hostilities and terrorist actions. [11]

The left

Luis Eduardo Garzón, the first president of the Central Union of Workers between 1990 and 2001, ran as the candidate of the left-wing Social and Political Front, later joined by other left-wing parties including the ANAPO and united under the name Independent Democratic Pole. His candidacy received a major boost following the left's good results in the March 2002 congressional elections.

Campaign

With public opinion having turned against the continuation of peace talks with the guerrilla, Uribe saw his support in the polls increase at a consistent pace. He broke through, surpassing Serpa, beginning in February 2002, following President Pastrana's announcement that he was ending the peace process. [12]

The shift in the polls led a number of Conservatives to abandon their party's official candidate and join Uribe. Decrying the lack of support for his candidacy, Juan Camilo Restrepo dropped out and the Conservative Party chose to officially endorse Uribe. [13] Uribe also received the support of a number of other small parties and movements, including Radical Change, senator Germán Vargas Lleras' Colombia Siempre, the National Salvation Movement and Team Colombia. [10]

Opinion polls

Date Polling Firm/Source Uribe (L. diss.) Serpa (L) Garzón (PDI) Sanín Oth. Lead
18–23 May Napoleón Franco [14] 48.2 27.4 8.2 6.1 10.1 20.8
12–14 May Napoleón Franco [15] 49.3 23 7.8 6 13.9 26.3
18-23 Apr Napoleón Franco [16] 47.6 27.4 7 6.5 11.5 20.2
1-2 Apr Caracol- El Espectador -Cambio [17] 51 29 4 7 9 22
20-23 Mar Serpa internal [17] 49 31 4 7 9 18
26 Feb-5 Mar Uribe internal [17] 54 24 3 8 11 30
21-24 Feb Napoleón Franco [18] 59.5 24 1.2 5.1 2.2 35.5
4 Feb Napoleón Franco [19] 53 24 12 11 29
19-25 Jan 2002 Napoleón Franco [20] 39 30.1 0.9 16.9 13.1 8.9
19-22 Sep 2001 Napoleón Franco [9] 23.441.2 16.2 19.2 17.8

Results

CandidatePartyVotes%
Álvaro Uribe Colombia First 5,862,65554.0
Horacio Serpa Liberal Party 3,514,77932.4
Luis Eduardo Garzón Independent Democratic Pole 680,245 6.3
Noemí Sanín Yes Colombia 641,8845.9
Íngrid Betancourt Oxygen Green Party 53,9220.5
Harold Bedoya Pizarro Force Colombia52,7100.5
Francisco Tovar Civic Defence Movement 16,3960.2
Augusto Guillermo Lora 19th of April Movement 12,7240.1
Álvaro Cristancho Community Participation 10,1170.1
Guillermo Antonio CardonaMPCCC8,4640.1
Rodolfo Rincon Community Participation 6,5880.1
Invalid/blank votes394,205–
Total11,249,734100
Registered voters/turnout24,208,31146.5
Source: Nohlen

Related Research Articles

The history of Colombia includes the settlements and society by indigenous peoples, most notably, the Muisca Confederation, Quimbaya Civilization, and Tairona Chiefdoms; the Spanish arrived in 1499 and initiated a period of conquest and colonization, most noteworthy being Spanish conquest of the Muisca; ultimately creating the Viceroyalty of New Granada, with its capital at Bogotá. Independence from Spain was won in 1819, but by 1830 the "Gran Colombia" Federation was dissolved. What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada. The new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation (1858), and then the United States of Colombia (1863), before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886. Panama seceded in 1903. Since the 1960s, the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict, which escalated in the 1990s, but then decreased from 2005 onward. The legacy of Colombia's history has resulted in one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries in the world giving rise to a rich cultural heritage; while varied geography, and the imposing landscape of the country has resulted in the development of very strong regional identities.

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Alfonso López Caballero is a Colombian economist and diplomat, the son and grandson of former Presidents of Colombia, Alfonso López Michelsen and Alfonso López Pumarejo respectively, and former congressman, government minister, ambassador to France, Canada, the United Kingdom, and presidential candidate.

The Great Alliance for Change was a political alliance between parties in Colombia during the Colombian presidential election, 1998 that supported the presidency of Andres Pastrana Arango against the campaign of Colombian Liberal Party presidential candidacy of Horacio Serpa, back then supported by the Presidency of Ernesto Samper.

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References

  1. ↑ Nohlen, D (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, p. 306 ISBN   978-0-19-928358-3
  2. ↑ Nohlen, p. 358
  3. ↑ Nohlen, p. 360
  4. ↑ Franco, Napoleón; Stamato, Vicente (2008). Colombia Encuestada: Opinión Pública - Periodismo - Política. Bogotá: N. Franco & Cía. S.C.A. p. 255.
  5. ↑ "Falleció el ex canciller Augusto Ramírez Ocampo". El Tiempo. 15 June 2011. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  6. ↑ "Quién es Quién - Juan Camilo Restrepo Salazar". La Silla Vacía. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  7. ↑ Daza, Javier Duque. "Institucionalización organizativa y procesos de selección de candidatos presidenciales en los partidos Liberal y Conservador colombianos 1974-2006". Estudios Políticos. 31. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  8. ↑ "Quién es Quién - Horacio Serpa Uribe". La Silla Vacía. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  9. 1 2 Franco, p. 257
  10. 1 2 "Quién es Quién - Álvaro Uribe Vélez". La Silla Vacía. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  11. ↑ "Programa de Gobierno / Álvaro Uribe: Proceso de paz". Votebien.com. Terra.com.co. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  12. ↑ Franco, p. 256
  13. ↑ "Una elección histórica". Colombia.com. 27 May 2002. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  14. ↑ Franco, p. 270
  15. ↑ Franco, p. 269
  16. ↑ Franco, p. 267
  17. 1 2 3 Franco, p. 264
  18. ↑ Franco, p. 262
  19. ↑ Franco, p. 260
  20. ↑ Franco, p. 259
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