Green Party presidential candidate Antanas Mockus asked Wednesday to meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at the Casa de Nariño, just as his second round election counterpart, Partido de la U candidate Juan Manuel Santos, did Monday.
“Obviously the question arises if he would receive me; I would love to and I’ll take this moment to say to him: Mr. President, I request a meeting with you,” Mockus told journalists.
Mockus said that given that Uribe met with his former defense minister Santos, he should meet with the Green candidate too, in the interest of remaining “impartial.”
“I devote my enthusiasm and my hope that things change, and I ask, Mr. President, that you remain neutral because you are the arbiter of the electoral contest,” Mockus said.
The former Bogota mayor added that if Uribe were to meet with only one of the two presidential candidates, it could be seen by Colombians as interference in the electoral process on the part of the president. Colombian law prohibits the president from commenting on the elections and the candidates.
Santos won 46.56% of the vote in the first round of elections last Sunday, ahead of Mockus on 21.49%, resulting in a run-off election which is scheduled for June 20.
Uribe has been warned in the past by independent electoral observers not to interfere in the elections.
