Colombia election: Farc fails to win support in first national vote

[Bacchus4.0]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-43367222

Sunday's vote was the first in which the former Farc guerrillas, now a political party, took part.

With more than 90% of votes counted, ex-president Álvaro Uribe's Democratic Centre party won the most seats.

The Farc performed poorly, in line with expectations - but is guaranteed some seats by the peace agreement.

It received just 0.4% of the total number of votes - but will receive five seats each of the two chambers of parliament.

[COLGATE4]

1. That's still way too many for these killers

[GatoGordo]

6. Sadly, FARC was guaranteed 5 seats no matter how few votes they got

Last edited Mon Mar 19, 2018, 03:06 PM - Edit history (1)

And in return, FARC vowed to forgo violence (they didn't... they gave all of their weapons to the ELN, the "new FARC" ).

So, nothing has changed. Marxist/Leninist murderers are still murdering, but with a new name. The ELN is nothing but FARC members who wouldn't forgo their violent ways.

The FARC is whining that they can't get a fair shake at being elected, when for the last 50 years they have been murdering Colombians (rich/poor, urban/poor)... and they expect these people to forgive and forget that?

Hopefully, the 5 seats given to FARC is a one time thing. They deserve "the pedagogy of the paredón", not seats in an assembly.

[COLGATE4]

7. Absolutely right on.

[EX500rider]

2. Former terrorists not popular at the polls, who'd guessed?

[Judi Lynn]

3. Voters know better than to vote for someone the right-wing wants dead.

There's no mystery there. The death squads are still in operation, still running things for the right-wing politicians, just as they did before. The only difference is that they have refigured their organizations and given themselves new names, like "Aguilas Negras," rather than AUC.

As has happened for decades in Colombia, still going:

COLOMBIA: "Mark Him on the Ballot – The One Wearing Glasses"
By Constanza Vieira
Reprint | | Print | Send by email
Constanza Vieira

BOGOTA, May 8 2008 (IPS) - "With Uribe, we thought: this is the guy who is going to change the country," the 41-year-old fisherwoman told IPS.

. . .

The odd thing was that in both the 2002 and 2006 elections, despite the fact that the villagers had already decided to vote for Uribe, the far-right paramilitaries, who had committed a number of murders since 1998, when they appeared in the region that was previously dominated by the leftwing guerrillas, pressured the local residents to vote for Uribe anyway.
The paramilitaries did not kill people to pressure the rest to vote for Uribe, as they did in other communities, but merely used "threats," said L.

"If you don't vote for Uribe, you know what the consequences will be," the villagers were told ominously.

And on election day, they breathed down voters’ necks: "This is the candidate you’re going to vote for. You’re going to put your mark by this one. The one wearing glasses," they would say, pointing to Uribe’s photo on the ballot, L. recalled.

"One (of the paramilitaries) was on the precinct board, another one was standing next to the table, and another was a little way off, all of them watching to see if you voted for Uribe," she added, referring to the less than subtle way that the death squads commanded by drug traffickers and allies of the army ensured that L.’s village voted en masse for the current president in both elections.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2008/05/colombia-quotmark-him-on-the-ballot-the-one-wearing-glassesquot/

[Bacchus4.0]

4. Nah, the people don't want to vote for murdering terrorists and slavers of the FARC

They did get 5 seats anyway per the peace agreement. Meanwhile, your guy Santos is at 14% approval.

[GatoGordo]

5. The FARC's biggest enemy is their former membership the ELN

The FARC admitted this. FARC candidates were being targeted for execution by their own former membership. They then had the audacity to demand that the government offer their candidates protection against their own Marxist/Leninist comrades in arms.

El Pueblo has been content to throw rotten eggs and vegetables at FARC candidates, with much hilarity ensuing.

FARC spent 50 years enslaving and murdering the rural poor. The rural poor have not forgotten this.