Uribe Dealt Setbacks in Vote

President Alvaro Uribe suffered a surprising double blow in two days of balloting that ended Sunday as Colombian voters rejected most elements of a government reform package he had promoted and chose one of his political enemies as mayor of the nation’s capital.

Uribe, America’s closest political ally in South America, had made the package of 15 constitutional reforms the centerpiece of his agenda, introducing it to Congress the day he took office last year.

For any measure to win approval, 25% of registered voters had to cast ballots on it. By late Sunday, however, with nearly 98% of the vote counted, it appeared that 11 of the 15 reforms had failed to meet that threshold. Among them was a freeze on state salaries that would have saved more than $600 million over the next several years.

Balloting was also held for local offices. In the Bogota mayor’s race, victory went to Luis Eduardo Garzon, 52, a burly ex-communist and union leader who has consistently opposed Uribe. After the presidency, the mayor’s job is generally considered the nation’s highest-profile political post. Candidates backed by Garzon’s Democratic Pole party were winning in several other important local races.

Together, the results seemed to indicate difficult times ahead for Uribe, who according to polls is one of the most popular presidents in recent Colombian history, with support surpassing 70%.

Uribe had made no statement on the referendum or the results of local voting by late Sunday. But Enrique Penalosa, a former Bogota mayor and Uribe ally, was blunt. “It is a defeat, I accept that, a big defeat,” he said.

Uribe, a former provincial governor, was elected in a landslide last year on a promise to crack down on the leftist guerrillas who have waged war against the Colombian state for nearly four decades.

He launched an all-out offensive that has killed numerous rebels and increased desertions from their ranks. His policies have included strong support for the controversial U.S.-funded aerial fumigation program to wipe out the drug crops that finance the rebels. Colombia supplies 90% of the cocaine on U.S. streets.

Uribe promoted the reform package as necessary to combat terrorism and corruption as well as tighten spending in a country whose debt is nearly equal to half of its gross domestic product. But only four of the reforms seemed likely to pass, including one that would prevent people convicted of corruption from running for office and another that would cap state pensions.

Uribe now will try to pass some of the reforms in Congress, where his allies have had trouble maintaining unity.

The defeat at the polls is likely to make it more difficult for Uribe to win passage of some of his more controversial proposals designed to find a resolution to Colombia’s civil war. Two of the most polarizing are one that would grant rebels and paramilitary fighters amnesty for massacres and a proposed anti-terrorist statute that would allow detentions and searches without judicial warrants.

Still, some analysts noted that Uribe’s popularity remains high and that there are few signs that average Colombians are weary of his offensive against the guerrillas.

Fernando Cepeda, an Uribe supporter and one of the country’s leading political analysts, noted that all 15 reforms received the support of a majority of voters, even if most didn’t meet the turnout threshold. He also predicted that Garzon’s election will help counter accusations that Uribe has installed an authoritarian government in Colombia.

“This is simply a balancing of powers, as always occurs in midterm elections,” Cepeda said.

The high abstention rate was partly the result of a strategy by the country’s Liberal Party, which has clashed frequently with Uribe’s allies in Congress.

The party’s leaders urged voters to stay home as a way of defeating the referendum, since “no” votes counted toward the total needed for passage.

Turnout may also have been low because the ballot was extremely complex, with 15 separate propositions written in turgid legalese. Even among those who did vote, many people simply failed to fill out the entire ballot, resulting in some propositions reaching the turnout threshold while others fell short.

But many voters saw the entire exercise as a waste of time, dismissing the idea that new laws could clean up a country where many believe corruption is endemic.

The voting took place amid rebel attacks that left 13 people dead. In Antioquia province, six workers were killed by a bomb in a dairy owned by one of Uribe’s political allies. Seven police and soldiers were killed in battles across Colombia. Rebels also burned 60 voting booths and blew up four electrical towers, but military officials said voting was not impeded.