Obey the law

Occasionally I exceed speed limits, if the weather and the road permits, and I find it responsible. And of course, only if it is unlikely that the police would notice. It does not happen very often because mostly speed limits are reasonable, and also because others comply. In Sweden. So, if the limit is 30 kph past a school, I slow down. I have found it completely impossible to do likewise in Colombia.

This is because the speed limit signs (and other traffic signs) seem to be distributed arbitrarily. On a well maintained straight road in the countryside you may very well encounter sign saying 40 kph. Nobody, and certainly not uniformed military or police will obey that sign. Nor do they slow down to 30 kph when passing by the school. Not even if it were preceded by this sign, saying "Obey the signs":

It is quite frustrating, but I do adapt to local traffic culture and invent my own norms. In fact, the lack of respect of traffic laws is quite in accordance with common practice many other legal areas.

Forgive this long intro. It is just difficult to find a starting point. Here goes:

During the campaign preceding the 2006 presidential elections president Uribe was criticised for breaking the "ley de garantías" of 2005, the law that would prevent the acting president from using the president's platform for campaigning. The law also stipulates equal access to national TV channels. This was a brand new law, as a consequence of a constitutional change that made it possible for the first time to re-elect a president. Uribe's argument for neglecting the law was that it was unfeasible and that when elected he would have it changed.

There has been no change, yet. The campaign however, has started. Some of the political parties have decided on one candidate running, other parties still have not yet done so but are preparing preliminaries between their possible candidates. Thus the TV and financial restrictions for campaigning are now implemented.

The strange thing is that this does not concern president Uribe, because he has not announced his candidature. And he cannot do this formally, because the constitutional change which permitted him to be reelected in 2006, only permits this once. As a consequence Uribe can do his campaigning at full speed - prentending not to be a candidate.

Formally, Uribe cannot run for a third term. The constitution does not permit a third term. The referendum that would make possible the necessary constitutional change has not yet been accepted by the constitutional court. The constitution does not permit any change of election dates, thus the presidential election will take place on 30 May 2010. The last date for announcing presidential candidates is 12 March. The first possible date for a referendum is 13 March - if things run smoothly from now on. So, why bother?

Because in Colombia strange things might happen. In my next note I will tell a little about how strange things happened in 2006. Rule of law is not a common Colombian practice.