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Published On: Tue, Mar 4th, 2014

24 Dollars for your vote

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Votes are up for sale for as little as 50,000 pesos as Colombia goes to the polls this Sunday.

That’s what candidates are now saying openly as widespread vote-buying has led Semana magazine to call these elections the most expensive on record.

Ok, Semana points out, the CNE (national electoral council) does set limits on candidate spending, but these are ignored as some hopefuls spend an eye-watering 5 billion pesos to secure victory.

Colombians refer to “votos de opinion” and “votos amarrados” to make the distinction between politicians who try to win popular support and those who resort to clientelism (or a bit of both).

None of this is denied by the political class. In fact, corruption of the electoral process is considered endemic, and precious little is now done either to monitor or prevent it.

Real change is urgent, but there seems little appetite for this from a government itself accused of clientelism.

The Santos administration has allegedly handed out more than 1.5 billion dollars in “mermelada” or “jam”. Some of this money it is rumoured goes direct to the campaign finances.

I know it sounds incredible to suggest the government is using tax payers’ money to subsidise corrupt politicians to pervert the electoral process, but it’s an allegation few even bother to refute.

Now some have said to me that I can’t be right, that vote-buying wouldn’t work, that there is no way of knowing whether the investment has paid off, whether the elector has done what he or she has been paid to do.

Well, it’s true that it’s impossible to be 100% secure, but these election machines are no amateurs. Votes may cost 50,000 in a poorer part of the country, but 100,000 pesos is more common in wealthier or hotly contested areas.  Add to this market dynamics – the closer we get to the day, and the more desperate the candidate – and you see there’s plenty of money at stake.  It should be no surprise, then that the candidates have developed sophisticated-ish strategies to ensure their money is efficiently and successfully spent.

Thankfully, I do not have to betray confidences to explain how this works. La Silla Vacia have rather helpfully provided a “manual for how win elections”.  Effectively, parties and candidates break the electorate down into small zones. Each area has a “leader” in charge of securing names addresses etc of those willing to be bought off. This leader tells the campaign organizers how many votes he has and therefore how much money he needs to receive from the kitty. These voters are told to go to a specific voting booth, mark the appropriate box, and then pocket the money. If the leader has, say 250 votes from area A, he sends them to polling booth B. If in polling booth B there are at least 250 votes everyone`s happy. These operations work across the country forming a network of corrupt cells.

Depressing? You bet.

Unless the rules of the game are changed and the political turkeys decide to vote for Christmas, Colombia`s elections will continue to be distorted by criminality.

The Electoral Observation Mission are doing a sterling job in bringing cases of fraud to light – they point out that it’s not just vote-buying that we have to worry about – but without real action, throwing politicians, community “leaders” and even voters in jail, how realistic is it to expect things to change?

Thankfully we need not despair entirely. Not all candidates are created equal and there are conviction politicians to choose from. The new government must act to make it easier for these candidates to triumph against the corrupt.

Ultimately though, it`s up to the electorate not to sell their vote. It`s time for citizens to do their bit. Roosevelt said, “A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”

Photo, El Tiempo

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