Opposition Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba Friday called for citizens to abstain from voting or to turn in a blank vote in Colombia’s June 20 presidential elections.
Cordoba, who has worked as a mediator in FARC hostage releases, suggested during an online debate that voters who do not support either Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus or Partido de la U’s Juan Manuel Santos, vote in blank or active abstention as a form of political protest.
The Liberal Party senator said she plans to create spaces on various social networking websites where dissidents can discuss these two alternate forms of voting.
Cordoba is expected to announce her official stance on the second round presidential election within the next few days.
Mockus won 21.47% of the vote in last Sunday’s first round presidential elections, while Santos won the round with 46.57%. However because neither candidate achieved the majority vote required to win outright, the two candidates will face-off in a second round election on June 20.
Mockus has said that one of his goals for the second round election is to convince abstainers to vote en masse.
