Colombia’s electoral authorities said on Friday that they will consider looking into the problems regarding voting thresholds.
Media reported Monday that in order to retain their legal status, political parties would have to win at least 3% of the vote – approximately 450,000 votes.
This increase caused some politicians, such as Jorge Guevara from the Progressive Party, to worry that they and the people who vote for them would be “excluded from democracy.”
The new measures were deemed by minority parties, such as the Green Party, MIRA and the indigenous Independent Social Alliance, as being able to prevent them from taking part in the political process.
In an interview with Colombia Reports, Luis Rojas – President of the Independent Social Alliance – said that “the new threshold reflects the concern of the traditional parties in the national political scene; it is no secret that political reform is made, supposedly, to strengthen the parties and to incur a better and more healthy practice in politics.”
He went on to say that his party was not “too concerned” by the prospect of change, believing that “we have had a solid growth across the length and breadth of the country, and that in the 2014 elections we will be able to maintain our legal status, with or without the threshold increase.”
After the initial uproar caused on Monday, it appears as if the courts are willing to reconsider the initial ruling.
According to Semana, representatives from the MIRA party have requested that the vote threshold be kept at 2% after fears that they would lose their legally recognized status, saying that it will “eliminate the rights of political minorities.”
Sources
- Interview with Luis Enrique Rojas, President of the Independent Social Alliance
- Corte estudiará el umbral para los partidos políticos (Semana)
- Partidos ‘chicos’ tendrán que apostarle a los 450.000 votos (Semana)
