Congressmen of Colombian coalition Party Cambio Radical are free to
vote in favor of the 2010 re-election of President Álvaro Uribe, party leader German
Vargas Lleras said Sunday.
The coalition party so far has been the weakest link within the coalition, because of the presidential aspirations of Vargas Lleras himself. It was Cambio Radical that earlier sank the possibility for Uribe to run for the 2010 presidency, giving the party’s own leader more chance of winning.
The apparent different interest of the Cambio Radical leadership and Uribe led to a rift within the party, where a number of congressmen are staunch supporters of the President.
During a party meeting in Barranquilla on Sunday, Vargas Lleras told the senators and representatives of his party to continue supporting the 2010 re-election of Uribe if they want to. So far, the Party openly opposed the 2010 re-election of Uribe and only wanted to support the possibility for the President to be re-elected in 2014.
According to newspaper El Espectador, an anonymous source close to Vargas Lleras says the Cambio Radical leader thinks Uribe will not receive the necessary votes in the second referendum needed to force constitutional change, which would definitely sink the re-election.
