Abstract

FORTOU, Jose Antonio  and  SOSA, Santiago. Former Combatants, Legacies of Violence, and Electoral Competitiveness. Local Elections in Colombia, 2019. Estud. Polit. [online]. 2020, n.59, pp.280-301. ISSN 0121-5167.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.espo.n59a12.

The 2019 Colombian elections were the first ones in which the party of the former FARC combatants ran for local office. Given the great controversy surrounding the signing and implementation of the Peace Agreement, as well as the continuing levels of violence in several municipalities around the Country, there has been great concern about the electoral participation of the members of this political party. This article shows a statistical analysis of the relationship between the participation of the FARC party and its competitiveness in mayor and city council elections. We found that municipalities in which the FARC party ran for office had more competitive elections, but that it depended on the levels of recent violence experienced in each municipality. The main implication of our analysis is that the legacy of violence, not the electoral participation of former combatants, should be the main factor of concern in the electoral process.

Keywords : Elections; Political Parties; Local Politics; Electoral Competitiveness; Post-Conflict; Colombia.

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