Colombian President Alvaro Uribe expresses concern about his nation’s upcoming elections, saying that he expects them to go smoothly, despite the Registry’s flawed handling of the March 14 congressional elections, but he still does not feel calm, reports RCN Radio.
“I am keeping quiet, but not calm, because I care a lot about what happened in March,” Uribe said Tuesday.
Uribe said that the events of the congressional election “create unease and unrest that will only dissipate with the success of the Registry in May.”
The president said that his “great desire is that all candidates are surrounded by security and that Colombians can vote freely, without pressure from the guerrillas in any part of Colombia or coercion from abroad. Let my countrymen vote conscientiously.”
“In our hearts, we tried for the sake of this country to bring about democratic security for all,” said the President, adding that “never in the history of Colombia has the opposition had so many guarantees [of protection].”
Uribe, who is not permitted to back any candidate in particular, is thought to unofficially support his former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos, and has expressed concern that the Green Party’s Antanas Mockus might not be able to maintain Uribe’s much-lauded hardline “democratic security” policies.
Following Uribe’s comments, independent electoral observers sent a letter to the president, warning him not to attempt to influence the upcoming presidential election results.
