Corruption in Colombia

Here is my report on the state of Election Fraud in Colombia

While ex-Agriculture Minister Andres Felipe Arias was Agricultural Minister, over $113 million dollars fell into the hands of wealthy conrtibuters to president Alvaro Uribe (Arias is a supporter of Uribe).

The political party formed by politicians accused of being involved with para-military forces made numerous political gains in the Colombian Senate, providing "strong evidence that right-wing criminal bands associated with drug trafficking ‍to plague Colombia's countryside,” said the AP (Alternative Democratic Pole).

Defense Minister Gabriel Silva announced on Wednesday that his ministry, military forces, and election authorities have designed a security arrangement for the upcoming March congressional elections, which includes 100,000 armed military and police patrolling more than 97% of the country that day. The strategy, officially known as "Plan Democracy," was described by Silva as a preventive measure to ensure that the elections proceed safely and without disruption.

The Colombian Prosecutor General's Office opened an inquiry Thursday into Supreme Court magistrate Luis Javier Osorio's claim that attempts were made to buy his vote in the election of a new prosecutor general.

A group on Facebook compared the handwritten voting results from the polling stations with the official results on the Registry's website. Photos of more than a thousand cases where the official numbers are different than those on the polling station slips are shown on the social media website. This accounts for 1.5% of the total "mesas" in the first round.
The photos of the handwritten results from each table, which were written on a form called the E-14, can be downloaded from the Registry´s website. (The presidential Election in colombia in 2010)

In the 2010 elections for congress it turned out to be impossible to trace the amount, origin and use of campaign money. Although candidates are obliged to keep books on this, and to make them public, few do so. And usually there are no sanctions, as there are no legal instruments to follow up.

Colombia's national registrar Carlos Ariel Sanchez acknowledged on Thursday that the risk of fraud during Sunday's presidential election has not been eliminated and that there may still exist "electoral mafias" wishing to sabotage the election, reported Colombian media.

The minister said that voter fraud had been recorded in over 300 towns and that the government has recently been informed about illegal armed groups pressuring voters

A party founded less than six months ago, many of whose candidates were shunned by mainstream parties for alleged links to organized crime, is on course to win nine of the 102 seats in the Colombian senate in the elections held on Sunday.