Jump to content

1970 Colombian general election

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1970 Colombian general election

← 1966 19 April 1970 1974 →
Presidential election
Turnout52.53%
 
Nominee Misael Pastrana Borrero Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
Party Conservative Conservative
Alliance National Front ANAPO
Popular vote 1,625,025 1,561,468
Percentage 40.69% 39.09%

 
Nominee Belisario Betancur Cuartas Evaristo Sourdis Juliao
Party Conservative Conservative
Popular vote 471,350 336,286
Percentage 11.80% 8.42%

Results by department
  Misael Pastrana
  Gustavo Rojas Pinilla
  Evaristo Sourdis

President before election

Carlos Lleras Restrepo
Liberal

Elected President

Misael Pastrana Borrero
Conservative

General elections were held in Colombia on 19 April 1970 to elect the president, the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives.[1] It was the first time all three institutions had been elected on the same day, and was also the last election under the National Front agreement, which had restricted electoral participation to the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party, with each party allocated 50% of the seats in both houses,[2] whilst the presidency alternated between the two parties. As a result, the main contest in parliamentary elections was between factions within each party,[2] whilst only Conservative candidates ran for the presidency. The result was a victory for Misael Pastrana Borrero, who received 40.7% of the vote.[3] However, supporters of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla claimed that the election had been rigged in favour of Pastrana.[3] Rojas had also been supported by the Christian Social Democratic Party.[3] The 19th of April Movement guerrillas traced their origins to this alleged fraud.[4]

Background

[edit]

The 1970 elections were set to be the last of the National Front, the agreement signed by the leaders of the Conservative and Liberal parties in the aftermath of five years of military dictatorship. In the agreement, formalized by the passage of Legislative Act 1 on 15 September 1959, the two parties pledged to alternate the power of the presidency for the next three elections. From 1958, each alternating presidential election was uncontested by the other party; the previous elections had brought to power Liberal Carlos Lleras Restrepo, while 1970 was set to be the year of the Conservatives.

Misael Pastrana Borrero, a former minister and ambassador to the United States, launched his candidacy in Medellín in September 1969. A Conservative, he was eventually nominated as the National Front candidate at the national conventions of both the Conservative and Liberal parties.[5] His platform was largely a continuation of his Liberal predecessor's moderate economic and social policies, and he campaigned with the slogan "I am not a man. I am a program."[6] President Lleras actively campaigned on his behalf, violating the impartiality of the executive.[7]

Despite Pastrana's nomination by the National Front, dissident Conservatives emerged to challenge his candidacy. Belisario Betancur and Evaristo Sourdis Juliao enjoyed the support of their regional constituencies, Antioquia and the Caribbean region.[6]

The National Popular Alliance (ANAPO) was a political movement formed in 1961 by Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, a retired general who had ruled the country as military dictator from 1953 to 1957. ANAPO was a populist grouping of dissident liberals, conservatives, and leftists, united by their common rejection of the National Front coalition. Rojas previously ran as the ANAPO candidate in the 1962 elections against Guillermo León Valencia, but his candidacy was invalidated by the Supreme Court; this sentence had been overturned in 1967 and the ex-dictator again sought to return to the presidency by democratic means.

Results

[edit]

President

[edit]
CandidatePartyVotes%
Misael Pastrana BorreroColombian Conservative Party1,625,02540.69
Gustavo Rojas PinillaNational Popular Alliance1,561,46839.09
Belisario BetancurColombian Conservative Party471,35011.80
Evaristo Sourdis JuliaoColombian Conservative Party336,2868.42
Rafael CorredorIndependent110.00
Total3,994,140100.00
Valid votes3,994,14098.95
Invalid/blank votes42,3181.05
Total votes4,036,458100.00
Registered voters/turnout7,683,78552.53
Source: Nohlen

Senate

[edit]
Party and factionVotes%Seats+/–
Colombian Conservative PartyNational Popular Alliance1,036,65026.2326+8
Pastranistas586,13114.8318
Belisaristas294,1857.449
Sourdistas185,2064.696
Total2,102,17253.2059+6
Colombian Liberal PartyPastranistas1,074,05927.1839
National Popular Alliance382,7779.6912+12
Sourdistas152,5063.865
Belisaristas131,4303.333
Others108,6532.750
Total1,849,42546.8059+6
Total3,951,597100.00118+12
Valid votes3,951,59799.61
Invalid/blank votes15,4090.39
Total votes3,967,006100.00
Registered voters/turnout7,666,71651.74
Source: Nohlen

Chamber of Representatives

[edit]
Party and factionVotes%Seats+/–
Colombian Liberal PartyPastranistas1,051,66626.5157
National Popular Alliance563,61414.2128+22
Sourdistas156,8773.959
Belisaristas137,0693.466
People's Liberal Revolutionary Movement34,4910.870–1
Others90,8252.295+5
Total2,034,54251.29105+3
Colombian Conservative PartyNational Popular Alliance849,13821.4143+15
Pastranistas589,23414.8530
Belisaristas300,2237.5719
Sourdistas185,6864.6813
Others7,8810.200
Total1,932,16248.71105+3
Total3,966,704100.00210+6
Valid votes3,966,70499.66
Invalid/blank votes13,4970.34
Total votes3,980,201100.00
Registered voters/turnout7,666,71651.92
Source: Nohlen

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, p305 ISBN 978-0-19-928358-3
  2. ^ a b Nohlen, p323
  3. ^ a b c Nohlen, p353
  4. ^ "Colombia: The 19th of April Movement". Country Studies Series. Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress. December 1988. Retrieved July 31, 2015.
  5. ^ Biografía de Misael Pastrana. Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango
  6. ^ a b Novitski, Joseph (20 April 1970). "General Rojas, Ex‐Dictator, Claims Victory in Colombia's Presidential Race". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  7. ^ "Siglo XX en El Tiempo. Año 1970". El Tiempo. 1 December 1999. Retrieved 20 March 2021.