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URIBE 2010 RE-ELECTION TURNED DOWN

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/2159-uribe-2010-re-elect...

The First Committee of Colombia's House of Representatives turned down President Álvaro Uribe's possible re-election in 2010. Supporters of the President will now try to have the 2014 re-election approved by Congress.

The proposal to change the text of the referendum, so Uribe could be re-elected in 2010 was denied by 18 of the 33 lawmakers in the committee.

The referendum initially was meant to demand the 2010 re-election, but because it was wrongly formulated it needed to be rephrased afterward. The reformulating of the text was denied.

The following bill to change the constitution to allow Uribe to run for the 2014 presidential election was approved and will be proposed for approval by the Plenary session of the House and the Senate.

Colombia's constitution until four years ago only allowed a president one term in office. This was changed in 2004 so Uribe could run for re-election. The constitutional change needed to allow the popular president a second re-election was forced by a referendum. 4 million Colombians signed in favor of the constitutional change.

The referendum's come under scrutiny after news broke that one of the sponsors of the popular vote was suspected pyramid scheme and money launderer DMG. The organizers refuse to reveal who financed the operation, which is currently being investigated by the Attorney General.

By mariacvetanoski on Sep 19, 2009, 10:24 in Politics & the war.

mariacvetanoski says on Sep 19, 2009, 10:24:

The organizer of the popular referendum that demands the possibility for Colombian President Álvaro Uribe to be re-elected continues to refuse to disclose the financiers of the project.

Luis Guillermo Giraldo, secretary of coalition party Partido de la U, told Caracol Radio the 1.9 billion pesos (US$ 1 million) to fund the popular vote came of "a non-profit organization, which was created a few years ago and has its statutes."

The foundation that financed the referendum is called Colombia Primero and has not the same members as Primero Colombia, the group that supported the first two candidacies of Uribe, Giraldo said.

The Partido de la U secretary refuses to say the names of those in the foundation, but assured they were "respectable people" and do not handle dirty money.

Save the street children of Colombia Now!!

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apeters says on Sep 19, 2009, 13:41:

this was posted like a year ago...give us some real news.

0 funny, 1 helpful.

Loggi says on Sep 19, 2009, 13:41:

This should really be finalized one way or the other.

Live for the moments you can't put into words

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