Reply #3: Colombian judges say paramilitary fighters forced vote fraud [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Colombian judges say paramilitary fighters forced vote fraud
Justicia | 19.05.06

www.centredaily.com

BY GERARDO REYES AND STEVEN DUDLEY
Knight Ridder Newspapers

EL DIFICIL, Colombia – Amid the biggest Colombian scandal since drug traffickers helped finance a presidential election, electoral judges and voters in this remote town are backing allegations of vote fraud in 2002 that favored President Alvaro Uribe.

Right-wing paramilitary fighters forced election judges to fill in uncast votes for the conservative Uribe and discard votes for his rival, Liberal Party candidate Horacio Serpa, three of the judges here told The Miami Herald.

The judges’ comments support recent accusations by Rafael Garcia, a former official at the security agency known as DAS, similar to the FBI. Colombia’s media and several non-government organizations have regularly made parallel allegations in recent weeks, and the Attorney General’s office opened an investigation into the fraud charges last week.

Coming ahead of balloting May 28 in which Uribe is expected to win a second term, the allegations have unleashed the country’s biggest scandal since the 1994 presidential race, when drug lords contributed $6 million to former President Ernesto Samper’s campaign.

More:
http://www.peaceobservatory.org/en/429/colombian-judges-say-paramilitary-fighters-forced-vote-fraud