President's parties win Colombian congressional elections
The biggest winners in Colombia's weekend congressional elections were the parties supporting incumbent President Alvaro Uribe in his bid for re-election in May, local media reported on Monday.

With some 90 percent of the ballots counted as of early Monday, Uribe's supporters showed a clear majority in the legislature, with 70 of the 102 seats in the Senate, and a narrower majority in the lower house, with 90 out of 165 seats.

Among the supporting parties, the Unity Party was the biggest winner, gaining 1.6 million votes, followed by the Conservative Party with over 1.5 million and the Radical Change Party taking 200,000 votes.

The opposition Democratic Axis party surprised many by winning an unusually high number of votes exceeding 135,000.

Some 26.5 million eligible voters took part in the balloting to select 102 senators and 165 members to Colombia's House of Representatives.