Uribe Rebuts Voting Irregularities Claims

[Minstrel Boy]

Uribe Rebuts Voting Irregularities Claims

Saturday May 27, 2006 11:16 AM

AP Photo XFV103

By JOSHUA GOODMAN

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - President Alvaro Uribe has taken to the airwaves to assure Colombians that Sunday's elections would be the fairest and most transparent in decades, rebutting claims by his far-behind challengers of last-minute irregularities. A close U.S. ally who backs liberalized trade and emphasizes law and order, Uribe led his closest challenger by more than 30 points in the final pre-election poll last week.

"The guarantees are real, not rhetorical, for the opposition and everyone else in this election," Uribe told RCN radio Friday, responding to complaints about election preparations and procedures from two main challengers.

The Alternative Democratic Pole party, or PDA, said authorities arbitrarily ordered the transfer of at least 200 polling stations from rural areas to urban centers, arguing the move could affect hundreds of thousands of voters.

The decision may be part of a strategy by Uribe backers to sabotage the candidacy of Sen. Carlos Gaviria, said Samuel Moreno Rojas, head of the PDA. Questions also were raised about the exclusion of hundreds of teachers believed to be Gaviria sympathizers from local, vote-counting committees.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5849401,00.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Colombia's paramilitaries

Colombia's paramilitaries
The New York Times

FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2006

Last July, Colombia passed a measure called the Justice and Peace Law. It was supposed to offer paramilitary fighters incentives to put down their guns, but would instead have let them continue their criminal activities undisturbed. Now Colombia's Constitutional Court has restored justice and peace to the law.

The U.S. State Department considers the Colombian paramilitaries to be terrorists. They are responsible for massacring thousands of civilians, and finance their activities through extortion and by providing 40 percent of Colombia's cocaine exports.
(snip)

President Álvaro Uribe's administration has twice written bills that restrict the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court, which is the most important remaining check on the president's power. Uribe may try again if he is elected to a second term on Sunday. He enjoys the strong backing of Washington, which considers him a counterweight to Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. The U.S. ambassador, William Wood, has enthusiastically supported Uribe's sweetheart deal for the paramilitaries.

While the Bush administration acknowledges in general that Constitutional Court decisions should be respected, it needs to make a strong statement of support for that court's independence, and for paramilitary demobilization under the court's terms. Uribe should, too, and should abandon his efforts to meddle with the Constitutional Court.
(snip/)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/26/opinion/edcolombia.php