Antioquia’s Conservative Party is going through a period of negotiation and compromises.

Two trends currently characterize the party: one is marked by tradition, experience and recognition with names like Juan Gomez, Fabio Valencia and Manuel Ramiro Velasquez; the other is better represented in Congress with senators like Liliana Rendon and Olga Suarez.

In the search for a candidate to the Governorship, party members know they must find common ground and made the determination to stay united and exhaust dialogue until the best representative is found.

The Conservative Party is prepared to play its best hand in order to hold on to the Governorship of Antioquia. Definitely interested are Roberto Hoyos and Sebastian Moreno, who is backed by Luis Alfredo Ramos and Alvaro Villegas.

Other names being tossed around are Fabio Valencia Cossio, Juan Gómez Martínez, Álvaro Vásquez and Óscar Darío Pérez. The party has announced it will back a candidate willing to strictly adhere to the party’s principles; the Directorship is now in continuous session.

Leaders of the Conservative Party in Colombia must justify before the highest electoral authority, the National Electoral Council (CNE), why the party’s internal consult originally scheduled for the 27th of September will no longer be held.

The CNE’s decision was revealed yesterday in response to a request Andrés Felipe Arias made after he learned of the party’s decision. Surveys show Arias as the preferred Conservative pre-candidate. The Party has three business days to explain, starting today.

Independent pre-presidential candidate Martha Lucía Ramírez is with the ‘quintuplets’ no longer and is now expected to make the switch over to the Conservative Party and be one of three possible candidates, if former Ambassador Noemi Sanin returns to the party.

Ramírez hasn’t made a final decision, but is evaluating a proposal made last week by the Conservative Party  to participate in the September 27 consult. The lack of certainty in the group of five led Ramirez to study other options, “it’s not just about being a candidate anywhere (…) but about guaranteeing political work for the long term”, the former senator said.

Conservative pre-presidential candidate, Andres Felipe Arias, is touring several of Antioquia’s municipalities to present parts of his program’s agenda.

Arias has three specific initiatives for Medellin in the areas of employment, education and security; he said his goal is to “change the course of the city because we are doing poorly”.

Arias not only wants to win the Conservative Party’s internal consult on September 27, but also hopes to get more votes than whoever wins in the Liberal or Democratic Pole’s consults.

The illusion some parties hold on to of a third Uribe term continues to haunt ‘uribistas’ in spite of the fact that the President will not be running in 2010.

Coalition parties like the ‘U’ and the minorities insist on waiting for an official statement from the Head of State confirming that he won’t be seeking a third mandate. Others like Cambio Radical (Radical Change) and the Conservative Party opted to take their own paths.

The ‘U’ Party, the Colombian Democratic ‘Polo’ and the Conservative Party will turn to the citizens of Colombia for a popular consult that would allow the parties to democratize some of their decisions. 

Aside from answering questions as far as the internal administration of each group, they will also address national topics such as reelection for President, mayors and governors.

There will be 11,515 polls at 4,709 locations, in 1,102 municipalities. 30,882 candidates will participate in the consult which will have a cost of 20 billion pesos.