May 23 2014, 10:27
- Incumbent president Juan Manuel Santos will be facing Oscar Iván Zuluaga, Marta Lucía Ramírez, Clara López and Enrique Peñaloza on May 25 as Colombians elect a president for the 2014-2018 term.
- Given the results of the most recent opinion polls, the absolute majority vote system Colombia uses will most likely force Santos and Zuluaga to a runoff election on June 15.
- Current population is estimated at 46,245,297, out of which a 71% (32,975,158) is eligible to vote. 545,976 Colombians will participate from abroad.
- Because it is a presidential election, and only one office is at stake, the cost of the election will be particularly low. The Registraduría Nacional, Colombia´s highest electoral body, has stated that the process will cost 219.897.881.299 Colombian pesos (116 million US dollars).
- There are 10,425 precincts in Colombia, and 217 abroad. A total of 89,389 polling stations will be available for voters to cast their ballot.
- For some years now, Colombia has been using biometric technology to authenticate voters at some polling stations. For this election, 3,500 biometric devices will be deployed in specific precincts which authorities believe voter impersonation can occur.
- It will only be necessary to print 33 million paper ballots for the event. 88,000 extra ballot papers in Braille will be produced to facilitate the vote of citizens with visual disabilities.
- In an attempt to speed up the proclamation of results, authorities will scan the tallying reports from each precinct to automate the remaining processes of the election.
- Organizing an election of this caliber is no minor task. So the Registraudría Nacional is counting on a citizen army of 531,942 poll workers to conduct the election.
- Authorities are hoping to bring down the number of null votes for this election. For the last few elections in Colombia the percentage of null reaches two digits.
“Image courtesy of creativedoxfoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net”
