Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe is meeting with Congressmen Tuesday to seek ways to rescue the referendum needed to re-elect the President in 2010.
Uribe is currently meeting with Congressmen of coalition parties Partido de La U and Cambio Radical. Uribistas Monday said there is a way to bypass the approval of the House of the Representatives where the bill is currently pending.
Article 104 of Colombian constitution states “the President of the Republic, with the signatures of
all ministers and after approval of the Senate of the Republic, may
consult the people on decisions of national importance. The decision of
the people is obligatory.”
Based on this article, the supporters of the President say the problems
of the referendum as it is organized now can be bypassed and the
Colombian people can be asked to allow the constitutional change needed
for a re-election.
Uribe announced Tuesday morning the conciliation of the referendum will not be ready for approval by Senate and House Tuesday. The deadline for the approval of the referendum expires August 18.
Many Congressmen and analysts already called the referendum “dead” because the bill is facing various obstacles. The Supreme Court is investigating 86 Representatives about their allegedly illegal second approval of the referendum while the first referendum had not yet been certified by the Registry. Furthermore the Registry has already informally stated the financing of this referendum
did not meet the legal standards, because some companies gave more
money than legally allowed. The National Electoral Council is still
officially investigating this.
