2007 Colombian regional elections

2007 Colombian regional and municipal elections

← 2003 October 28, 2007 (2007-10-28) 2011 →

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The 2007 Colombian regional elections were held in the Republic of Colombia on October 28, 2007. The elections were organized as established by the Colombian Constitution of 1991 by the National Electoral Council (Consejo Nacional Electoral, CNE) to elect Department governors with its respective Department Assemblies, Mayors with their respective City Councils and the Local Administrative Juntas (JAL).

The election preparations and electoral campaigns occurred amid significant debate over the absence of guarantees for voters. Concerns were raised about potential interference from illegal armed groups, such as paramilitary self-defense groups or guerrilla factions, not only in terms of possible sabotage of the elections but also their support for certain candidates. This follows historical instances where politicians were elected with backing from the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a phenomenon highlighted in the parapolitics scandal. Additionally, there were apprehensions about the infiltration of drug trafficking money into the campaigns, a recurrence of past issues where drug money sometimes collaborated with illegal armed actions. Electoral fraud was also a concern, commonly manifested through practices such as vote buying and vote shifting.

The Attorney General of the Nation, Edgardo Maya Villazón, expressed reservations about conducting the elections under the existing electoral system, which has remained unchanged since before the 1991 Constitution and is susceptible to such frauds. Despite these issues, the elections proceeded.

The elections have been marked by the assassination of 22 candidates and the kidnapping of at least two. The main armed group targeting the elections is the marxist leninist guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), as part of the Colombian armed conflict with the government of Colombia.^[1] The President of Colombia Álvaro Uribe Vélez publicly called not to vote for those candidates preferred by the FARC or candidates who were offering to buy people's vote.^[2] While in some areas there are reports of untrusting the elections due to the break out of the Parapolitica scandal in 2006 in which it was discovered that members of the demobilized paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) had been colluding with political leaders and members of the public force in order thwart adversaries and advance politically.^[3]

On this date, some 27 million Colombians are apt to vote to elect between some 86 thousand candidates to represent 1,098 Colombian municipalities and 32 governors of Colombian Departments. Colombian authorities mobilized 167,559 soldiers and policemen in order to vigil the 9,950 voting sites.^[4]