If Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is allowed to run for a third term next year, he could well win in the first round of voting, the results of a poll revealed Tuesday show.
According to a Datexco poll, 54.5 per cent of respondents would vote for the incumbent in next year’s ballot, up 4.67 points since late July, reports Angus Reid polling site.
Former Medellín mayor Sergio Fajardo is a very distant second with only 8.96 per cent, followed by former Colombian ambassador to Britain, Noemí Sanín, with just 3.97 per cent. Opposition leftist Polo Democratico member Gustavo Petro logged 2.52 per cent. Support is even lower for current defence minister Juan Manuel Santos, agriculture minister Andres Felipe Arias, and the rest.
If Uribe does not succeed in changing the referendum to permit him to run for re-election, Santos was polled as a first choice of 16.5 per cent of respondents, followed by Fajardo with 13 per cent, Arias with 10.4 per cent, Sanín with 7.56 per cent, and German Vargas Lleras with 3.63. Less than 3.5 per cent of respondents would support another candidate.
Alvaro Uribe has been Colombia’s President for seven years, since 2002. He was re-elected in 2006 after he succeeded in changing the referendum to permit the President to run for a second term, which was previously constitutionally prohibited. His supporters are now trying to change the constitution again so the President is allowed to run for a third term.
