Colombia’s Senate approved the government’s political reform
unanimously after opposition senators had left, denouncing the vote was
illegal.
After the opposition parties had stepped out of the commission, the reform was approved in record time and without much debate with eleven votes in favor and zero against.
The opposition had walked out after coalition senators who had earlier said they were not able to vote, because they were replacing senators currently under investigation for parapolitics. the commission refused the senators’ objections giving the Uribistas the majority.
The approval doesn’t mean an absolute approval. The bill will first have to be approved by the plenary session of the Senate and will have to be approved after a new round of debates for a second time before March 2009.
The political reform proposal seeks to deal with the growing parapolitics scandal of congressmen using right wing paramilitary influence to be voted into Congress. Critics say the law protects the “dirty”, mostly coalition lawmakers.
