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Vote counting in Colombia is about as trustworthy as it is here--which is not at all. You can get shot in Colombia for voting the wrong way, for advocating leftist candidates or for being a leftist candidate. Rightwing thuggery at the polls is common. Union leaders, community organizers, peasant farmers, political leftists, human rights workers and journalists are routinely threatened, beaten up and killed. (Two more union leaders murdered just last week.) And about 20% to 30% of the country is not included (or not fully represented in elections), because it is a war zone.
So, the voting population is not representative of the country--and is most especially not representative of the poor. And with all this violent intimidation by the Colombian military and associated rightwing paramilitaries, how can any opinion poll be trusted? If you know that you can be murdered for your opinion, and your murderers will go free, how honest will you be with pollsters?
The Associated Pukes routinely repeat the statement that Uribe is popular in Colombia. But have they investigated either polling conditions, or election conditions? I imagine there is a contingent of outright fascist voters who approve of murdering union leaders and other leftists, and who don't care if Uribe bribed legislators to extend his term in office--a small minority, as such minorities are throughout South America--in Colombia, maybe 20% to 30% of those permitted to vote. Then there are what may be the 'Stockholm Syndrome' voters--those who vote for Uribe's murderous, fascist regime, out of fear. And possibly there is another factor, which is fear of, or ties to, drug cartels. (Uribe was the Medellin Cartel's go-to guy, in his early career--and is more than likely protecting drug cartels today. Cocaine production and trafficking have greatly increased during his tenure--with $5.5 BILLION in Bush/U.S. military aid to protect Colombia's major exporters.)
I researched Colombia's voting system, and they were slated to go electric by 2009. I don't know if they have. Electronic voting is THE most manipulable method, depending on who owns and is permitted to review the programming code, and how much of the vote is backed up by a count of the ballots--not just existence of a paper trail, but actual counting of it, as they do in Venezuela--and as we DON'T do in the U.S. Depending on the rules, electronic voting can be the purview of scoundrels, as it is here--VERY easy to fiddle, very fast (literally, millions of votes can be changed with a line of code), and very difficult to detect (when there are no, or miserably inadequate, audit/recount controls, as here). Here, electronic voting, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by RIGHTWING BUSHITE CORPORATIONS, with virtually no audit/recount controls, was rushed into place, during the 2002 to 2004 period, with a $3.9 billion e-voting boondoggle from the Anthrax Congress, in order to control the anti-war movement in the United States. Nearly 60% of the American people opposed the invasion of Iraq (all polls, Feb 03), and anti-war opinion has grown to 70% today. The e-voting bill was passed in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution, and is closely related to it. The IWR guaranteed unjust war; the e-voting bill (euphemistically called the "Help America Vote Act") provided the means for shoving the unjust war down the throats of the American people.
Colombia's situation is similar. The Uribe government likes war. It is very lucrative, for one thing. It provides an excuse for killing opposition organizers, and systematically repressing the leftist vote. They have resisted--and, indeed, sabotaged--every effort to bring about a peaceful settlement in Colombia's 40+ year civil war. But now there are leftist governments all over the continent calling for peace in Colombia, and trying to get a peace process started (for instance, the efforts of the presidents of Venezuela, Ecuador and Argentina to get FARC (leftist guerrilla) hostages released). Now would be the time (as happened here) for the Uribe fascists to bring in e-voting machines and central tabulators, controlled in Bogota, by rightwing corporations--to guarantee pro-war election victories. And, of course, the Uribe regime is no more trustworthy than the Bush regime as the designers of an e-voting system. We need to find out if they have, in fact, instituted e-voting in Colombia--and how the system is set up, and who owns the code.
That issue aside (because I don't know if they've gone forward with e-voting), you have to wonder about this stunt by Uribe--of calling for a re-vote of the 2006 election--an election that was apparently illegal. Uribe was barred by the Constitution from running for more than one term. Legislators were bribed to change that Constitutional provision. Compare and contrast to Venezuela, where the Chavez government proposed a full vote of the people to decide on term limits--and the Chavistas lost. No backroom deals--bullying and bribery--there. The Chavistas put a gay/women's rights amendment in the package of amendments that were put to a popular vote, and, given Venezuela's rightwing Catholic clergy, that may have doomed all amendments (in a very close vote--50.7% to 49.3%). It's hard to know for sure if the voters wanted Chavez termed out--or were confused (there were 69 amendments), or succumbed to the clergy on gay/women's rights. (And you have to laugh at Bushites and the corporate press calling Chavez a "dictator"--where was there ever a "dictator" who championed gay rights?)
Chavez nevertheless remains very popular--genuine popularity, as opposed to Uribe's highly questionable popularity. (They don't shoot voters and opposition organizers and candidates in Venezuela.) He was elected with 63% of the vote in 2006, and enjoys a 70% approval rating--in a country where people have nothing to fear from openly expressing their views. They also have a presidential recall provision in Venezuela. If they don't like Chavez, they can recall him. The Bushites tried that in 2004 (our tax money to rightwing groups), and lost, big time. The fact is that the PEOPLE control the government in Venezuela, rather than the other way around--the government controlling the people, as in Colombia (and here). And the contrasts with the Uribe government are very stark.
Why didn't Uribe put his term limit to a vote of the people?
Why doesn't he put his term limit to a vote of the people now?
Will legislators be further bribed and bullied to enact this unusual re-vote?
Will he call off his paramilitary thugs if there is a re-vote?
Why did he announce this at midnight?
Is he guilty of bribery (as one of the two bribed legislators has said)?
Is the re-vote an end-run around the law?
What else might Uribe be guilty of? (50 of his political cohorts including family members are under investigation--and some are in jail--for their ties to rightwing paramilitary murders--and Uribe himself is under investigation for the same.)
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