In Congress We Trust: What We Don’t Know about Colombia’s Elections

Por Pedro Oswaldo Hernández y Viviana Ureña. At the beginning of March 2014, Colombian citizens came together to elect a new Parliament for the coming legislative term. These elections were of an entirely different character than in the past, however, given the current state of peace talks with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). The new Congress will be responsible for healing the nation after a long and bloody armed conflict and for implementing whatever post-conflict reforms the government and the FARC end up agreeing on. Prior to the opening of the polls, expectations ran high for the new candidates, parties and ideologies that were about to enter Congress. But by the end of election day most citizens were disappointed with the results. In January 2013, former president Alvaro Uribe announced the creation of a new right-wing political party, The Democratic Centre, which would compete in the forthcoming elections under his leadership. Although the party is very young it won 31 total seats in Colombia’s legislature, becoming the...