MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uribe clears the ground for a possible third mandate

Uribe has 91% of popular support

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has scrapped his plan to rerun the 2006 election in which he won re-election, the government announced, a move that could set the stage for him to seek a third term in 2010.

Uribe said last month he would try to repeat the vote after the Supreme Court ruled that the constitutional amendment that allowed him to run for and win a second term was tainted by corruption. But he has now dropped the plan. Uribe's government denies any wrongdoing in influencing the lawmaker, Yidis Medina who was sentenced to 47 months of house arrest in the case. "We are not going to call a referendum" said Interior Minister Fabio Valencia. The referendum is unnecessary because the country's Constitutional Court has declared the 2006 election legal. Uribe's initial call for a fresh vote raised uncertainty about how the election could be repeated and whether it could give him a fresh mandate lasting beyond 2010, when his current term ends. Uribe's popularity shot to 91% after this month's dramatic rescue of 15 rebel-held hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, and he is leaving open the option of running again 2010. "By abandoning the idea of restaging the 2006 election, the government clears the way for preparing a different referendum aimed at allowing for a third term," said Patrick Esteruelas, analyst for Latin America at consultants Eurasia Group. "The only obstacle in the way of him winning again in 2010 would be Uribe himself deciding not to run. Meanwhile, he will avoid being a lame duck for as long as he can by keeping his options open," he said. The Harvard, Oxford educated president, whose father was killed in a 1983 botched rebel kidnapping, has not anointed a successor. But his defense minister, Juan Manuel Santos, is seen as a likely candidate should Uribe decide against a third campaign. Uribe won a landslide re-election victory in 2006 after cutting urban crime, making the highways safer and boosting economic growth with his US-backed military crackdown on Marxist guerrillas fighting a four-decade-old insurgency. The Supreme Court ruled last month that a lawmaker was bribed by government officials into voting for the bill that allowed Uribe to stand for a second term. His supporters are already gathering signatures in support of a bill which would allow him to run for re-election