Colombia First Primero Colombia | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Álvaro Uribe |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Dissolved | 2010 |
| Split from | Colombian Liberal Party |
| Ideology | Uribism Conservatism Nationalism |
| Political position | Right-wing |
Colombia First (Spanish:Primero Colombia) was a non-profit foundation and laterconservative political movement inColombia which supported the candidacy ofÁlvaro Uribe in the2002 and2006 presidentialelections.
The movement was created in 2001 byAntioquia businessman Fabio Echeverri, alongsideMedellín businessman José Roberto Arango and Alberto Velásquez, to supportÁlvaro Uribe's candidacy in the 2002 presidential election. Uribe, a member of theColombian Liberal Party and former governor of Antioquia (1995–1997), had declined to run in the Liberal Party's internal consultations and instead sought the presidency as an independent, Liberal dissident supported by thePrimero Colombia movement. BecausePrimero Colombia was not a recognized political party, Uribe obtained ballot access by collecting signatures. Law 130 of 1994 (Article 9) allows candidates, backed by 'significant group of citizens' (grupos significativos de ciudadanos), to obtain ballot access by collecting signatures equivalent to 20% of the number of registered voters divided by the number of seats to be filled, in no case requiring. more than 50,000 signatures.[1] Álvaro Uribe's candidacy later received the endorsements of several other right-wing parties, including that of theColombian Conservative Party, which officially backed Uribe's candidacy after its own candidate withdrew from the race.
Uribe was electedPresident of Colombia on 26 May 2002 with 54% of the vote by the first round. Thereafter, the Colombia First movement remained dormant, not running any candidates for any other offices (local, regional or congressional) in later elections, until it was resuscitated to support Uribe's reelection campaign, once again running as an independent by collecting over one million signatures. Nevertheless, Uribe was backed by a wide majority inCongress, and his candidacy for reelection was supported by several parties including theConservative Party,Party of the U,Radical Change,Team Colombia and theDemocratic Colombia Party. Uribe was reelected with 62.4% of the vote by the first round.
In 2009, two Uribe supporters,Luis Carlos Restrepo andRoy Barreras sought to rename theParty of the U as Colombia First to create a largeuribista coalition, uniting all the President's supporters, to back Uribe's potential candidacy for a third term in 2010. However, Fabio Echeverri signalled that he had no intention of giving up his rights to the name.[2]
  | This article about a Colombian political party is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information. |
