After the ‘downpour’ of this atypical electoral campaign, the country has the opportunity to think about making the true political and electoral reform it needs.
It is worth reiterating that the electoral authorities, starting with the registrar Hernán Penagos, the National Electoral Council, the scrutiny commissions and the active participation of the attorney general, Gregorio Eljach, fully protected the electoral process and its result, to the point that today we can say that the so-called ‘chocorazos’ are a thing of the past.
It is true that the difference between the elected president, Abelardo de la Espriella, and the defeated candidate (but winner for other reasons) Iván Cepeda Castro was very close, contrary to the forecasts of almost all the pollsters who, curiously, in the first round were not right about De la Espriella’s victory and in the second, in the magnitude of the difference. But those are the rules of the democratic game according to which you can win or lose, even by one vote.
Part of the recomposition of the political system involves the reconstruction – or construction – of true parties with ideologies, programs and organization.
There have been cases in our recent history regarding votes. In the disputed election of April 19, 1970, Misael Pastrana beat former dictator Rojas Pinilla by just sixty thousand votes.
Already with the second round, Ernesto Samper defeated Andrés Pastrana by barely one hundred and fifty thousand votes despite the fact that the defeated man and his father accused Samper’s campaign of having received money from the Cali cartel. Samper and his vice-presidential formula, Humberto de la Calle, took office on August 7, 1994. The plebiscite for peace that President Juan Manuel Santos wanted to carry out was defeated by a little more than fifty thousand votes.
Part of the recomposition of the political system involves the reconstruction – or construction – of true parties with ideologies, programs and organization. In the constituent assembly, by ending the two-party system, the space was opened to end the parties and convert them into electoral micro-enterprises that are negotiated every four years.
It is positive that the Historical Pact has been strengthened as a party, but it has to be recomposed, since it is still perceived as a strange coalition in which there is room for real left-wing leaders, opportunists of all stripes, such as the so-called “Petrist conservatives”, like Trujillo in Antioquia; Ape Cuello, Juliana Guerrero’s protector; Guillermo Reyes, until recently a ‘militant’ of Petrism and divorced at the last minute due to questions about Verónica Alcocer. ‘Liberals’ who have gone through different organizations with clear bureaucratic benefits such as Julián Bedoya, representative Lopera, Roy Barreras, a former Uribista from “raca mandaca”, and some of the ‘greens’ such as Carlos Ramón González and Sandra Ortiz. If it consolidates itself as a real party, it is good news. As is also the case for returning to the government-opposition system that Barco implemented in 1986 and his successor dismantled by returning to the National Front.
The opportunity can be taken to reduce excessive presidentialism, which turns the president – Petro or whoever – into a monarch with unlimited powers. Hopefully the new president’s relationship with Congress will not be as it has been until now, the political bribery by virtue of which congressmen sell their votes for positions and contracts. Political agreements can be reached, but not by negotiating in detail with congressmen or by handing them “shreds of power.”
He cannot follow the president’s trial system, which today guarantees his impunity. Petro, without embarrassment, openly intervened in the electoral process knowing that nothing could happen to him in the Accusation Commission. The prohibition of intervention in politics should not continue to be a king of ridicule, the same as the sanctions for those investigated for illegal financing of political campaigns and the so-called law of guarantees. Consciences are also bought by the distribution of positions and contracts.
It is time to put an end to the pernicious figure of service contracts, a modern version of political slavery. At the beginning of his government, Petro made the proposal, which he later abandoned, of formalizing the public service without affecting workers’ rights. The fight against poverty should not continue to focus on welfare, which does not distribute wealth and only serves electoral purposes.
ALFONSO GÓMEZ Méndez
