Colombians voted on Sunday to renew both houses of their scandal-tainted Congress as major political parties choose candidates for the May election to succeed President Alvaro Uribe. Bogotá, Colombia. 14/03/2010.
Uribe's ruling Union Party is expected to keep its majority in both houses, which currently stands at 72 out of 102 seats in the Senate, and 103 out of 166 in the House of Representatives.
The Colombian Congress has been plagued by scandals, with scores of lawmakers investigated for alleged links to paramilitary groups, including 12 who were convicted.
Today's legislative elections, it is hoped, will wipe the slate clean, but the Electoral Observation Mission has already reported 3.5 million dollars of illegal contributions for one senate race alone.
The Organization of American States has also warned that drug cartels could influence the elections with their mountains of cash.
"In Colombia there is still a risk drug trafficking will try to influence politics, as it does in the entire world," OAS election observer mission chief Enrique Correa said in an interview published Saturday.
One political party has already been struck from the voting list on suspicion its leaders had links to paramilitaries, though opposition groups claim the party simply renamed itself and kept the same people, or their relatives, in charge.
Some 150,000 military and police have fanned out across Colombia to safeguard some 77,000 polling stations.
Some 29.8 million Colombians are registered to vote to choose from 2,539 candidates to fill Congress' combined 268 seats. (AFP)
The images shows some of the candidates of diferents parties in campaing.
