Bombs fail to disrupt poll in Colombia

Press, 16 March 1982, Page 8

Bombs fail to disrupt poll in Colombia

NZPA Bogota President Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala, casting his ballot yesterday in national elections for a new Congress and provincial offices urged Colombians to ‘bury the terrorist bombs under the weight of your votes.” Left-wing guerrillas had threatened to sabotage the elections, and the police said four bombs exploded in the. western cities of Cali and Palmira, injuring five people. With about one per cent of the estimated vote counted, Mr Turbay Ayala's Liberals had 26,670 votes to the Opposition Conservative Party’s 23.153. They are the major parties and usually take more than 90 per cent of the vote, with minor parties including the Communists, sharing the remainder.

There was no immediate indication of how many of the 13.7 million eligible voters turned out to cast ballots.

The Liberal Party has split into two factions, which could aid the Conservatives in the presidential election in May. Liberal congressional candidates ran as supporters either of Alfonso Lopez Michelsen, a 69-year-old former President backed by the traditional Liberals, or of a 39-year-old dissident Luis Carlos Galan, who launched his own candidacy. Mr Lopez Michelsen said that if Mr Galan’s followers, who call themselves ■ the “New Liberals” fared better than his own faction, he would leave the presidential race. . The Conservative presiden-

tial candidate Belisario Betancur, aged 59, is leading in opinion polls, largely because of the division in Liberal ranks. The Communist Party and coalitions of smaller Leftist political groups are also running candidates for President. Mr Turbay Ayala, who threatened to resign if his Liberal Party failed to retain its majority in the 311-seat Congress, said a series of “small bomb explosions throughout the country” as the polls opened failed to interfere with the voting. “Nothing serious has happened and the election, is taking place normally," the 65-year-old President told reporters gathered around him as he. marked his ballot and filed it.

There were nearly 100,000 candidates for 9682 public offices, including provincial legislatures and city councils. and the results could indicate a trend for the presidential election set for May 30. The Liberal Party held 56 per cent of the seats in the outgoing Congress, composed of a 112-member Senate and a 199-member Chamber of. Deputies. The Conservatives had 40 per cent of the seats and the remainder were divided among small Opposition groups including the Communists. The April 19 guerrilla movement, known as M-19, launched a terrorist bombing campaign several weeks ago to try to disrupt the election. M-19 takes its name from a presidential election on April 19, 1970, that the group claimed was rigged.