Juan Manuel Santos launches Presidential campaign
By Manuel Rueda, Editorial Director
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Former defense minister Juan Manuel Santos officially launched his Presidential bid on Friday after filing for his candidacy at Colombia´s national registry.
Santos, who will run for the governing National Unity Party or “Partido de la U”, is currently leading most presidential polls with 15 to 30% of voting intention.
The poll leader belongs to one of Colombia´s political and media dynasties, has a long road ahead of him as he is not well known in much of the country, has never been elected to any office, and he is trailed closely in the polls by independent candidate and former Medellin Mayor Sergio Fajardo.
The new presidential candidate was a successful defense minister and is perceived as a right wing candidate who intends to focus on security issues and prolong most of President Uribe´s policies including the famous “democratic security” strategy through which the government has regained control of key areas of the country formerly under the influence of the FARC guerrillas.
Not much is known about Santos´s social policies, but in a surprising move, the presidential candate has picked Angelino Garzon, a former labor union leader, labor minister, and former member of the leftist Polo Democratico party as Vice President.
Analysts say that with this unlikely decision, Santos is trying to give a more affable face to his campaign, showing he is also concerned about issues like poverty, labor rights, and social welfare.
However according to Javier Loaiza, a long-time political analyst and director of politics for website nuevapolitica, Santos' early choice of Vice President could backfire alienating members of other pro-government parties with whom he may have to make coalitions in order to win the May 30th Presidential elections.
“He should´ve waited until after the congressional elections to do this,” Loaiza told ColombiaWoW.com. “That way he could´ve lured the conservatives into a first round alliance by offering somebody from their party the vice-presidency.”
Loaiza says the March 14th congressional elections will “test the strength” of the different Presidential candidates by showing how many supporters each of their parties has and therefore how many potential votes for each Presidential candidate.
“The independent vote is very small in Colombia” he said, explaining that if someone votes for the Liberal party, the Partido de la U, or the Conservative Party in the congressional elections, they are likely to do the same in the May 30th Presidential elections.
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