Rightwingers keep control in Colombian congress elections
Monday 15 March 2010
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EmailColombia's governing party and its right-wing allies have won a majority in the country's congressional elections, according to partial tallies.
With 75 per cent of the votes for senate seats counted on Sunday night, candidates from the Social National Unity, Conservative and Radical Change parties - all closely allied with outgoing President Alvaro Uribe - were on their way to jointly winning control of the 102-seat senate.
The Liberal Party, which is in the opposition, was the third-largest vote winner and was expected to gain 18 seats in the senate.
Candidates from the Partido de Integracion Nacional, the party most tainted by Colombia's "parapolitics" scandal, a new grouping known by its initials PIN, appeared headed toward winning eight senate seats.
That put PIN ahead of Radical Change and the top two left-leaning parties, the Greens and the Alternative Democratic Pole, which together seemed likely to end up with 12 senate seats.
Voter turnout was low, at about 40 per cent.
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