Colombia’s Senate approves plebiscite to seal FARC peace deal
Colombia’s Senate approves plebiscite to seal FARC peace deal
Posted by Rose Lander on Nov 19, 2015
Colombians will have the option to vote either “yes” or “no” to an eventual peace deal with FARC rebels with a plebiscite, the Senate decided on Wednesday.
The Colombian government and guerrilla group the FARC have penciled in 23 March 2016 as the date for the signing of their final peace deal. However, the agreement will not become valid until the Colombian population has voted on it.
A plebiscite was proposed by members of the U Party, the party of President Juan Manuel Santos, as the method of ratification.
One crucial aspect of the proposed bill is that a 13% “yes” vote would be sufficient to ratify the peace deal, rather than a 51% majority, due to historically low turnout rates in Colombia potentially threatening the success of the peace process, celebrating its third anniversary on Thursday.
The bill passed through the first two rounds of debate at the Senate but in the absence of the Democratic Center, the party of former president and staunch critic of the peace process, Alvaro Uribe, because they disagree with the 13% threshold.
More:
http://colombiareports.com/colombias-senate-approves-plebiscite-to-seal-farc-peace-deal/
