By Luis Jaime Acosta
BOGOTA, March 8 (Reuters) – Colombians were heading to the polls on Sunday to elect a new Congress and choose three of the presidential candidates who will contest elections this May, a vote that will shape the next president’s ability to push through legislation and fulfill their agenda.
Voters will choose from over 3,000 candidates to fill 102 Senate seats and 182 House seats, in an election analysts predict will be divided among some two dozen parties, likely forcing the next president to form a coalition government.
Some 41.2 million eligible voters will also be able to participate in consultations through which some right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties will select presidential candidates. Several leading candidates – including leftist Ivan Cepeda, right-winger Abelardo De La Espriella and centrist Sergio Fajardo – will not participate in Sunday’s primaries.
“It is very important to come and exercise the right to vote. The most important thing is for Colombia to decide its future and for the results to be respected,” said Federico Rodriguez, a 32-year-old business administrator, after voting in Bogota’s north.
“It is a source of pride that we can go out and exercise our right to vote and to democracy, but I also have uncertainty about the results, about knowing what Colombia’s future will be in the next four years,” said university student Isabella Suarez, 21.
The polls are open from 8 a.m. local time (1300 GMT) until 4 p.m. (2100 GMT).
President Gustavo Petro, whose term ends in August, has repeatedly questioned the software that will be used for the vote count in the elections, alleging possible irregularities, while National Registrar Hernan Penagos has guaranteed the transparency of the vote and said party observers can verify the software’s results.
Some 246,000 members of the military forces and the national police have been placed on high alert to prevent attacks by illegal armed groups seeking to disrupt the election or pressure voters to cast their ballots for certain candidates, Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said this week.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
