Colombia Fails To Pass Anti-Corruption Consult

Colombia Fails To Pass Anti-Corruption Consult
Fecha de publicación: 
26 August 2018
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Just under the necessary one-third of Colombians voted against government corruption, just shy of the number necessary to pass the public referendum.  

With 97.42 percent of the polled tables closed over 99 percent of Colombians voted against corruption on Sunday, however, the necessary minimum number of eligible voters - 33 percent - didn’t cast a ballot reaching a very close 32 percent, so the vote won’t count.

RELATED: Gustavo Petro to Corrupt Colombians: Your End Is Coming!

The Anti-Corruption Consult, a series of seven questions meant to crack down on government corruption failed to pass on Sunday as only 11,249,761 eligible voters of the necessary 12,231,314 showed up to vote.

The referendum, led by the Green Party was unanimously approved on June 5 by Colombia's Senate.

At the final tally, 99.21 percent of the voters say they want to cap legislators’ salaries at 24 minimum wages, down from the current 40 minimum wage limit for lawmakers. The referendum second question asks if the public wants a guarantee that those convicted for corruption fulfill their entire prison sentence without exceptions—99.54 percent of the people agreed.

Ninety-nine point three percent of voters said they wanted the government to establish a transparent bidding process for public contracts, and 99.15 percent wanted citizens to participate in drafting local and national budgets.

Questions five and six would have strengthened accountability and transparency among legislators, requiring that federal lawmakers justify their participation in Congressional votes, which 99.6 of voters supported. A similar percentage wanted lawmakers to make all assets, incomes, and taxes public information.

Former presidential candidate and current senator, Gustavo Petro, was confident the consult would pass as polls opened Sunday morning. He tweeted a picture of himself voting with his young daughter and wrote the message: "Walking to vote on the seven points of the anti-corruption referendum. A Message from society to the corrupt: Hey, your end is coming!" 

After the polls closed Petro declared the day a victory against corruption: "The consultation was a success. If the corrupt were scared about eight million votes (the number of votes Petro received in the second round of presidential elections) now they are scared of more than 11 million." The Congress member added in his tweet, "Free citizens have strongly expressed themselves. Colombia's history has changed."

Duque has yet to comment on the anti-corruption vote.

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