Nearly 500,000 votes lacked the participation mechanism to overcome the established threshold that would determine its validity

According to official data from the National Registry of Civil Status, the entity that organizes the elections, with 99.74% of the polling stations surveyed, Colombia's anti-corruption consultation reached a little over 11.6 million votes, so it is impossible reach the 12.1 million votes that were needed for it to be valid.

Leer en español: Aunque el “si” superó el 99% en cada pregunta, la consulta anticorrupción no alcanzó el umbral

This means that, despite the fact that the referendum received more votes than the current president of Colombia, Iván Duque, none of its mandates will be converted IGNORE INTO law. Although the "if" exceeded 99% in each question.

What was voting in the consultation?

According to the newspaper El Espectador, today was looking to reduce the salary to the congressmen to 25 minimum wages, monitor the distribution of resources of the National Budget, end the recruitment to finger, limit the permanence of public servants in the corporations, the requirement of a declaration of public assets, jail for corrupt and establish mechanisms of oversight and surveillance both in the business of the State and in those of its officials.

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Despite the fact that the expected results were not obtained, the promoters have pronounced themselves on social networks with positive comments.

"We all have to learn to do things better, not do bad things to hurt the walk of these processes. I think we have learned a lot and we have to persist. It is an achievement because it was a very high vote, "said Senator Antanas Mockus.

For her part, Claudia López celebrated the partial results in Bogota from her Twitter account: "GRACIAS BOGOTÁ !!! What pride our capital city! Always fulfilling the country, to peace the fight against corruption! With 84% of the vote counted, Bogota far exceeded the threshold of participation and approval of the 7 mandates of the #ConsultaAnticorrupcion ".

THANKS BOGOTÁ !!!
What pride our capital city! Always fulfilling the country, to peace the fight against corruption! With 84% of the vote counted, Bogota far exceeded the threshold of participation and approval of the 7 mandates of the #ConsultaAnticorrupcion pic.twitter.com/68KTC0UZmb

– Claudia López (@ClaudiaLopez) August 26, 2018

According to Semana, one of the great obstacles for the consultation to happen was the lies that circulated around it: it was said that its promoters would receive millions for the replenishment of the votes, it was qualified under the usual term of "castrochavism" "And it was said that with the consultation, we wanted to position Claudia López as a candidate for mayor of Bogotá.

For the moment, we only have to wait for the voices of the citizens to be heard by the government and the congress and for legislative initiatives to be established in favor of a transparent policy in Colombia. However, bearing in mind that this consultation was born due to the impossibility of establishing transparency measures through the legislative process, this is an almost impossible task.

"The Congress never approved or will approve this on its own account, or because it is presented by the president or the strongest party. It is for the citizens to impose the changes, "warned Angélica Lozano, a politician, activist, lawyer and principal promoter of the popular consultation.

LatinAmerican Post | Luisa Fernanda Báez

Translated from: 'Aunque el “si” superó el 99% en cada pregunta, la consulta anticorrupción no alcanzó el umbral'