It would appear that the contest to determine the presidential candidate for the Partido Conservadora remains in deadline and is headed for what they like to call down here a “voto-finish".” The candidates are Andrés Felipe Arias (also known as uribito, i.e., “Little Uribe” and Noemí Sanín.
El Tiempo reports: Si persiste la pelea entre Arias y Noemí, el conservatismo podría ‘romperse’, opinan analistas (“If the fight between Arias and Noemí persisits it could tear apart conservatism, analyst says.”) It certainly will be a mess. While my original inclination was to think that Arias might be willing to ally with Juan Manuel Santos of La U earlier rather thatn later, I am not so sure.
It is worth noting that President Uribe was quoted recently as saying that of the candidates (and this may have been prior to Santos’ entry into the race) that Arias was the one that would be the most a copy of himself. It is noteworthy, however, that Uribe declined to vote in the PC primary (and open primary that any voter can choose to participate in as long as no other primary is chosen—there were two to chose from this past Sunday).
The latest bulletin from the Registraduría is below—it is from yesterday morning and I am not sure why a new one wasn’t issued this morning. Sanín is slightly ahead with over half of the mesas (individual voting tables) having reported. One suspect that remaining mesas are more rural, and that favors Arias.
Photo Source: El Tiempo.
March 16th, 2024 at 9:51 am
The Registrador has explained that all votes that were not counted by 11 pm, 49% of the mesas, were left under lock until the official vote count starting today (Sunday night’s was a pre-count)… a winner will not be apparent until at least Friday
March 16th, 2024 at 12:28 pm
That makes sense, insofar as knew the official escrutino is today, and I am a bit foggy on the exact procedures between the end of the process on voting day versus what happens today, etc.
March 16th, 2024 at 12:38 pm
[...] PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts » Partido Conservador … [...]
March 16th, 2024 at 12:48 pm
[...] coverage at El Tiempo. See also Steven’s posting (Steven is there, and has been posting interesting photos and notes about the election for the past [...]