Thursday 27 November
2008, San José, Costa
Rica
Panama Canal, Miami
Port Ratify Strategic
Alliance
Nicaragua Condemns
Anti-Election Move
Colombian
Parliamentary Commission Rules Out
Immediate Third Term For President
Colombia
Tries to Palliate Crisis
Brazil Increases Jail
Time For Pedophilia
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Colombian
Parliamentary Commission
Rules Out Immediate
Third Term For President
Bogota - A
commission of the lower
chamber of Colombia's
parliament on Wednesday
approved a bill aimed at
allowing President
Alvaro Uribe to run for
a third term in 2014,
but ruled out a second
immediate re-election.
Under the bill, Uribe
would have to sit out a
term after his current
term ends in two years.
He was re-elected in
2006.
However, legislator
Miguel Angel Rangel
regretted giving the
head of state
"vacations" for later
comeback in 2014.
"I find trivial the
issue of 2014. It is not
possible to spend 114
billion Colombian pesos
(50 million U.S.
dollars) on a referendum
when we could have done
a political reform,"
Rangel said.
The First Commission of
the Chamber of
Representatives refused
to change the text of a
referendum that asks
voters if they would
allow Uribe to seek
another four-year term.
His supporters said they
were trying to change
the proposal to let
Uribe run in 2010 in
order to ensure
continuity of his
popular policies on
defeating leftist
insurgents and
attracting foreign
investment.
A slowing economy and
his handling of a wave
of pyramid investment
schemes that have
recently collapsed have
added pressure on his
high popularity.
Thousands of depositors
were left broke due to
the collapse of the
schemes.
On Tuesday, two
legislators from the
ruling party refused to
vote in the referendum
over considerations that
their provinces were
affected by the collapse
of the pyramid
investment schemes.
The bill must breeze
through both houses of
the parliament before it
becomes final. |
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