MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uribe wants new vote in Colombia after reelection challenge

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe told Congress to call a new presidential ballot after a court challenged the law that allowed him to seek re-election in 2006.

Uribe made the announcement in a presidential statement broadcast on state television and radio late yesterday. Congress should convene to pass legislation as swiftly as possible on a referendum that would call on the people to repeat the presidential election, Uribe said. Uribe won a second four-year term in elections in May 2006. The Supreme Court yesterday ordered a review of the law that allowed him to seek re-election after the conviction of a lawmaker who confessed to accepting a bribe to support the change in legislation. Uribe won more than 60 percent of votes in the 2006 ballot as people supported his successes in combating guerrilla violence and overseeing economic growth. A high court in October 2006 approved changing the constitution to allow presidents to serve back-to-back terms. Uribe convinced Congress in 2004 to pass the law, saying he needed more time to control violence. Colombian governments have been fighting a four-decade civil war with the Marxist-inspired Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The president, in a speech yesterday, said he expects the central government to report a budget deficit of 2.8 percent to 2.9 percent this year, lower than the 3.3 percent previously estimated. He forecast a deficit of 2.5 percent in 2009, down from 3.2 percent.