Sometimes fame is enough to win a seat in the Congress of the Republic, but in other cases it is not enough to achieve it. That happened to several athletes, journalists and actors in these legislative elections, who were seeking a seat in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
One of the big losers was the New Liberalism Party, which did not win either in the He consults Centro Esperanza and was only able to win two seats in the House of Representatives.
Therefore, Ana Victoria Beltrán, who is remembered in Colombia for the role of Daniela Franco who starred in the series Fathers and sonswas left without a seat in Congresssince he was going for the New Liberalism looking for a seat in the Chamber.
Another one that was not enough was Mabel Lara. The journalist and presenter was ‘burned’ on behalf of the closed list of the New Liberalism and despite being the head of the Senate list, the party he represented did not reach the threshold.
From the same political party that were left out and even left their jobs with the dream of reaching Congress were Carlos Alfonso Negret, Xaverian lawyer and former People’s Defender; Sandra Patricia Borda, who resigned from her position as a professor and researcher at the Universidad de los Andes to aspire to a seat in the Senate, and Guillermo Pérez Flórez, a journalist and member of the Colombian Academy of Jurisprudence.
Luis Alonso Colmenares, father of the assassinated Luis Andrés Colmenares, who was for Radical Change, also might not reach the necessary votedespite the notoriety he had in recent months for his fight with the Attorney General of the Nation, Francisco Barbosa.
On the side of the athletes, things did not go in the best way either. Jackeline Rentería, double Olympic medalist, barely reached a little over two thousand votes and did not get her seat in the Chamber for Valle del Cauca. She was going for the Partido de la U.
The same thing happened with the head of the list for that match, the athlete Caterine Ibargüenwhich with more than 42,000 votes, despite being a good figure in his first candidacy for public office, is not enough to reach the Senate.
Former Miss Colombia Vanessa Mendoza, who was running for the Democratic Center for the Senate of the Republic, barely obtained 3,800 votes, one of the lowest votes in the party led by Álvaro Uribe Vélez.
Also the remembered former goalkeeper of Once Caldas and winner of the Copa Libertadores in 2004, Juan Carlos Henao, was seeking his position in Colombian politics with the independent party Gente en Movimiento. However, his sporting achievements were not enough for him to reach the House of Representatives for the department of Caldas, where he only received a little over 9,000 votes.
The Historical Pact, one of the winners of the election day
Gustavo Petro and his Historical Pact defeated their competitors this March 13 in the inter-party consultations and in the Congress of the Republic, for which they are the winners of the day.
However, they were not outright winners. Both in the vote for the pre-candidates and for Congress they had an important vote, but less than they expected.
Gustavo Petro’s votes this Sunday were much less than those obtained in the second presidential round in 2018.
And although they elected 16 seats in the Senate, a very significant number of seats, they were not the 30 that they had announced. And in the same way in the Chamber. Petrismo did not achieve an absolute majority in the Capitolas was their goal to control legislative decisions.
In the speech in which he greeted his “victory”, Petro, with an evident tone of concern, called on his followers to become “majorities”, in a clear acceptance that they are not yet. He asked them to “multiply” to be victorious in the first presidential round.