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Voting and elections in Colombia

So with all this talk of vote buying in Colombia. How does it work?

What are the logistics of vote buying?

I mean, do you just confirm with every dude that he voted for your boss, then give him x thousand pesos? Surely not, because people would just vote for who they please and then collect the cash.

Do you set up some kind of collective incentive scheme where if your candidate wins the polling booth, you pay each participant the pesos?

Or are we talking more run of the mill fraud, where you bribe the local election officials to influence the result?

By pedro on Nov 3, 2007, 14:46 in Friendly Talkzone.

pedro says on Nov 3, 2007, 14:48:

In general, how democratic and correctly run were the recent elections?

que nota!

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ColombianoGringo says on Nov 3, 2007, 17:54:

That depends on the location. These most recent elections were primarily for department and local level positions. For the most part, they were relatively peaceful.

It's hard to tell how "fair" the individual elections were. There are currently a few places were elections are being contested and recounted and not always peacefully. For example, there have been some disturbances in Palermo, Huila and other small towns.

Also, I read a story that a bus was found with about 300.000.000 pesos in cash that were supposedly for buying votes. I forget in which department that occurred.

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britabroad says on Nov 5, 2007, 10:26:

Gringo, I heared that on the local news too.
If my memory serves me rightly there are 3 places where there were serious disturbances after the elections because the local voters didn't accept the outcome. They're holding the elections again in these places in March. I know one of them was in Valle and one in Meta.
They also found a bomb left by the roadside near Yumbo north of Cali, and a bomb went off in Buenaventura killing 2 soldiers and a 14 year old kid.
As for vote rigging, my wife (colombiana) seems to think it's not as widespread as it used to be. What she hates is that, to make a vote, you make a finger print on the voting form in whatever coloured ink is designated to your candidate. Therefore, unless you manage to scrub the ink off really well, any one can see who you've voted for by the colour of your index finger. In the past, some people were set upon or even killed for voting for the 'wrong' person.

Leave the big stick at home...carry a cannon!

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kalder says on Nov 5, 2007, 10:36:

You're joking! So it's not, therefore, a secret ballot? Bloody disgusting.

"kalder- have you ever had a woman?"--Sam Salmon

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ColombianoGringo says on Nov 5, 2007, 10:44:

When I was a very little kid in Colombia, my dad took me with him to vote one time. Apparently, I somehow got red ink all over me, so everyone knew a mile away how he had voted.

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