MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay's ruling coalition dispute extends to the Senate

Senator Abreu require some coherence from the administration of Pte. Vazquez

Uruguay's ruling coalition 2009 presidential candidate dispute has extended to the Senate where President Tabare Vazquez has been unable so far, to garner the sufficient votes to support the nomination of Central Bank members which is currently headless.

Of the three names proposed for the three member Central Bank board, only two have support from the whole Broad Front Senators. The third candidate, --an expert in foreign debt--, has been vetoed by the MPP, the largest group in the ruling coalition whose leader Jose Mujica is a presidential hopeful, and the Communist party, alleging, "nothing personal" ("we recognize his academic credentials") but "he is not identified or representative of the political thinking of the coalition". The Executive request was sent October 7 and the president of the Central Bank resigned last October 24 with the purpose of running for elected office. This has left the bank with an only member who is waiting for the nomination of the new team. The opposition Colorado party has offered support from its three Senate votes but they are insufficient since nomination approval needs three fifths of the Senate's 30 votes, and although the ruling coalition has 17, six belong to MPP and one to the Communists, which is a long way from the needed 18 votes. Furthermore the main opposition force, National party is willing to support the government's nominations as long as the ruling coalition agrees to vote them. "We're not going to act as arbiters of the government's internal infighting", said Senator Sergio Abreu from the National party. "We are asking for some coherence from the administration of President Vazquez". "It's unconceivable what's happening: the government is playing with fire in the midst of the worst global financial crisis in almost a century", said Senator Julio Sanguinetti from the Colorado party. The MPP leader has said that the only problem is with the third name, "which has become a whim of the Executive, we're willing to support the other two". President Vazquez insists with the three names. However political analysts in Montevideo point out that the three candidates were presented by former Economy minister Danilo Astori, the other presidential hopeful who is disputing for the ticket with Mujica. Besides the candidacy dispute, to everybody's surprise Astori proved to be a most orthodox Economy minister ("to the right of conservatives"), while Mr. Mujica favours a more lax policy with a weaker Uruguayan peso to support the country's agriculture exports. To make things even more complicated President Vazquez has sent messages saying he does not discard his re-election if the two hopefuls can't agree on the ticket for 2009. The Uruguayan system does not contemplate a presidential consecutive re-election. Precisely this week a "group of friends" began collecting adhesions to amend the Uruguayan constitution, through a referendum, opening the way for a possible third incumbent candidacy. Several cabinet and leaders of groups have signed for the amendment request, but Mr. Mujica has said he is willing to sign the moment "Vazquez looks at me in the eye and tells me he's really intent in the re-election".