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On Thursday, at the National Registry, the ex-Minister of Defense and presidential candidate Marta Lucía Ramírez officially registered the committee that will collect signatures for the presidency in 2018.
Ramirez, after tendering her resignation from the Conservative Party last Tuesday, will begin the process of collecting signatures in the streets through the committee that will be called “For an Honest and Strong Colombia.”
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Her campaign committee includes, among others, former Foreign Minister Fernando Araújo Perdomo, former Minister Carlos Holguin Sardi, former Army Commander Reinaldo Castellanos and activist and lawyer Betzy Patricia Martínez Zapatero.
Speculating on the future, she noted that if she were to participate in a coalition, she would do so in one that “does not allow Colombia to descend into the abyss of populism and uncertainty.”
She called for all Colombians, especially the two million who voted for her in the presidential elections of 2014, and the followers of conservatism, to help her collect the necessary signatures to appear on the ballot in 2018.
Among the most important issues, Marta Lucia Ramirez proposes a government with strong justice: “From the Presidency I will promote a reform to strengthen the parties.” She also highlighted family themes, stating that “We have to rescue the family, the family is the basis of a strong Colombia.”
“The electoral contest of 2018 will determine if Colombia changes its current course and resumes the path of improvement in its indicators of human well-being, economic development, and wealth generation, or on the contrary, continues on the road that leads to an abyss of uncertainty that paves the road to populism,” said the pre-candidate.
Likewise, Ramírez confirmed her intention to be part of the “No” coalition, led by Colombian voters Álvaro Uribe and Andrés Pastrana.
Ramirez’s candidacy further crowds an already large field in which she will be battling Alvaro Uribe’s Democratic Center party for votes, as well as the centrist candidacy of former vice president German Vargas Lleras.
On the left, former Medellin mayor Sergio Fajardo is regarded to be a top prospect, while Rafael Nieto and Senator Ivan Duque are battling for the nomination of Colombia’s main right-wing party.
Source: El Tiempo
