AMERICA/COLOMBIA - Catholic Church calls people to vote “ freely and responsibly ”

Bogota (Agenzia Fides) – Bishop Ruben Salazar Gomez, President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Colombia, in a video message, a copy of which was sent to Fides, has called on Colombians to vote freely and with responsibility. “Next Sunday we have a most important engagement, we are called to elect the person who will lead the destiny of our country for the next four years” says Bishop Salazar. He continues: “I urge you to cast your vote, to vote freely, to vote responsibly and with conscience choose one of the 2 candidates, to vote for the one you think will be the best president. We must vote without feeling any pressure, we must allow nothing to affect our vote. Go to vote all of you with responsibility.”
The President of the Bishops' Conference says with emphasis: “It is most important for the whole country to make known its will. Each must express his or her opinion and vote. We cannot leave it to a few people to decide on behalf of the others. Next Sunday everyone must take part in what will be a celebration of democracy.”
On Sunday 20 June Colombia will vote in a second round of presidential elections between 2 of the initial 9 candidates. They will choose between Juan Manuel Santos of the U Party (Partido Social de Unidad Nacional), and Antanas Mockus of the Green Party (see Fides 31/05/2010). As for the first round, a commission of the OEA observers (Organisation of American States) will be in Colombia to oversee the second round of voting on 20 June. This was confirmed by OEA secretary general José Miguel Insulza. According to the local press, Colombia's defence minister Gabriel Silva has said that security for the national event will be guaranteed by 350,000 members of security forces and army troops. News agencies say about 30 million Colombians are called to elect a new president who will take office in August. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 19/06/2010)