Fed-Up Colombians Go to Polls in Force

Despite intermittent rain and a campaign of harassment by guerrillas, Colombians went to the polls Sunday in surprising numbers to vote in an election that pitted traditional machine politics against a new wave of independent candidates.

Nearly 46% of the registered voters cast ballots, a large turnout for Colombian congressional races. Four years ago, fewer than one-third of those registered voted for lawmakers.

The high turnout in part appeared to represent Colombians expressing anger at the corruption in Congress. A dozen lawmakers have been jailed for accepting money from drug traffickers, who supply about 80% of the world’s cocaine and an increasing amount of the heroin marketed in the United States.

With 95% of ballots tallied nationwide, President Ernesto Samper’s ruling Liberal Party had received 45% of the vote, far ahead of all other parties, and will continue to dominate Congress with the largest bloc of legislators in both houses. The Liberals were bolstered by the rural electorate, which is most closely controlled by the party machine.

Voters in Bogota, the capital, strongly supported independent, anti-corruption candidates. And to express their disgust, 11% of voters nationwide cast blank ballots. Still, an overwhelming number of those outside the capital who did choose candidates backed the Liberal Party--the most tainted by the scandal.

Voters continued casting ballots in two towns in the central province of Meta after confrontations between the army and rebels, officials said. Six soldiers were killed and nine wounded in the fighting.

Witnesses reported skirmishes in other parts of the country, including La Esmeralda, a village in Caqueta, the southern cocaine-producing province where the army last week suffered its bloodiest defeat in 35 years of civil war.

Rebels updated their casualty report from that battle in a communique Sunday, stating that they killed 83 elite anti-guerrilla troops, wounded 32 and took 43 prisoner. The army has recovered 40 survivors and 35 uniformed bodies without dog tags. Survivors received heroes’ welcomes at the military hospital in Bogota, then were whisked away to a psychological treatment center. Reporters were not allowed to speak with them.

Rebels tried to disrupt the election by kidnapping election officials, burning vehicles and blowing up electric towers across the country. Voting was suspended in a handful of towns because insurgents had burned ballots and threatened prospective voters, police said.

“In the entire country, 212 precincts were affected, which represents 0.33% of all precincts,” said Interior Minister Alfonso Lopez. “The election day incidents clearly had an impact in the places they occurred, but, taken as a whole, the elections were normal.”

Hundreds of independent candidates ran on anti-corruption platforms, challenging Colombia’s two traditional parties. About 30% of the new Congress, elected for a four-year term, will be freshmen.

The top vote-getters for Bogota’s 17 seats in the Chamber of Representatives were a former guerrilla leader, a journalist, a singer, a movie director and an actress.

Anti-corruption crusader Ingrid Betancur received the highest number of votes among the candidates for Senate, a chamber whose members are chosen by a nationwide vote. Overall, her recently organized “Liberal Oxygen” reform movement was in fourth place, after the two traditional parties and a group that broke off from one of those parties.

The Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, the country’s oldest and largest guerrilla group, cited government and political party corruption and attacks on alternative candidates as reasons to boycott the election.

“Do not prolong your slavery by voting for these bandits,” stated a communique distributed in Caqueta.

Tensions were especially high in places near rebel-controlled areas and those that have recently suffered guerrilla attacks. Upiano Bermeo, a 72-year-old farmer in Doncello, a city in Caqueta, said: “Voting used to be a happy occasion. Now it is nerve-racking.”

Soldiers assigned to protect precincts frisked voters as they entered polling places in areas from Doncello to Une, a town about 14 miles southeast of Bogota where the army repulsed a guerrilla attack three weeks ago.

“Everyone is nervous,” said a soldier in Une, where voters quickly marked their ballots and hurried out of the market, which had been converted into a voting center for the day.

A gray-haired farm worker strolling through the flower-decked town square shook his head when asked whether he planned to vote.

“I’m totally opposed to all of this,” he said, glancing nervously around to see if anyone was eavesdropping. “Voting does no good.”

At Potrero Grande, a hamlet on the outskirts of Une where the confrontation between the army and guerrillas occurred, a dozen people gathered to wait for the bus into town in order to vote. But they were not enthusiastic.

“I am voting out of desperate hope,” said one mother of five. “This country is practically at war. No one can save us.”

Darling reported from Une and Bogota, and Lawrence from Doncello and La Esmeralda.