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Colombian Voters Reject Traditional Parties in Congress Pre-election polls published in El Tiempo found that only 9% of Colombians agreed that Congress makes a significant contribution to running the country. Almost 80% characterized its contribution as minimal or non-existent. The Congress is responsible for drafting the constitution, creating legislation and exerting political control over the government. It is made up of 102 senators-100 elected by the national population and two representing Colombia's indigenous communities-and 166 representatives from each department (including, for the first time in these elections, a representative of the Colombian chamber of commerce abroad). According to political analyst Rodrigo Pardo García-Peña, the recent elections displayed a tendency toward "opinion voting," favoring individual candidates over political parties and organizations. The atmosphere was described by political expert Alejo Vargas Velásquez as "a high degree of political-ideological dispersion and difficulty in organized articulation." Others saw the ideological trend as oscillating between the center-left and center-right. The clear trend was the decline of the long-governing Liberal and Conservative parties. They won 32 and 13 seats in the Senate, respectively, not enough for a majority for either party. Political scientist Fernando Estrada Gallego argues that "the collapse of the two-party system is leading to a fragmentation of interests that make politics the realm of individuals." The trend alarms a former liberal president, who cautions that "when the organic channels for public opinion evaporate, there is reason to believe that democracy is in danger." One factor in these developments has been the reform of the party registration system, opening the way to the creation of new movements and parties that erode the strength of the Liberals and Conservatives in Congress. Voters seem so disillusioned that they ask only that the candidates they elect won't steal from them, without paying enough attention to their political careers, experience and proposals. But the traditional parties also hold a portion of the responsibility; as liberal ideologue Luis Carlos Galán put it a few years ago, the parties "failed to make a difference and maintained their dynastic, arrogant and almost authoritarian qualities….Instead of responding to ideological concerns, they concentrated on fighting for control over bureaucratic fiefdoms." The result has been a gradual process of political marginalization, favoring abstention and undermining the legitimacy of popular representation. It is important to point out that the March elections involved almost the entire country. Warring forces were able to prevent the voting in only 15 of 1,080 municipalities, a clear victory for democracy. President Andrés Pastrana hailed this success as a blow to those who discredited the elections and predicted that the voting would be sabotaged by "terrorism, fear or indifference." He went on to cite the healthy showing of candidates linked to the disbanded M-19 guerrilla movement as "palpable proof that Colombians are always ready to support political avenues, but never violence, as a means to power." The Congressional elections are also significant for two immediate reasons: as a preamble to the presidential elections in May, and as evidence of the need for far-reaching political reform. Most polls show the independent liberal Alvaro Uribe Vélez in the lead, with Horacio Serpa in second place. Many observers predict that the voting will go into a second round that will force voters to choose between the candidates that received the most initial support, but that will not necessarily represent a polarization of the electorate. Proposals for political reform range from changing the party and representative systems and restoring spending authority to the Congress, to condensing the legislature into one 100-member body by revoking the positions of recently elected congressmen (this last idea belongs to Uribe). Popular pressure for reform is high, and any measures that are passed must be significant if they are to succeed in shoring up the credibility of Congress and the political system in general. According to Elizabeth Ungar, chair of the Political Science Department at the Universidad de los Andes, "instead of adding to the legislature's credibility problems, we should look for ways to strengthen it. There is a reason why democracy is based on a separation of powers, Congressional checks on the executive and the possibility of dissent from government decisions." The consolidation of democracy in Colombia will mean strengthening the country's institutions and changing entrenched political habits.
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