The next mayor of Bogotá will be selected in October and the parties are starting to determine their candidates.
El Tiempo notes that the Liberals are trying to decide who they will offer (Lanzar candidato propio a la Alcaldía o apoyar a uno de los favoritos, dilema de liberales en Bogotá with Concejo president Antonio Galán appearing to be an early prominent precandidate for the nomination.
In the PDA, the race is shaping up with at least four candidates: Samuel Moreno (ex-Senator and grandson of the military dictator, Gustavo Rojas), former mayor Enrique Peñalosa, and the former auditor general, Clara López Obregón and ex-Minister María Emma Mejía.
Moreno has been affiliated in the past both with the AD/M-19 and ANAPO, while Peñalosa, López and Mejía have political roots in the PL. The past party affiliations of these actors is interesting as we watch the PDA become (perhaps) a new long-term political force in Colombian electoral politics. Could it be that the long-looked for third party is finally materializing and institutionalizing?
Mejía served in the Gaviria and Samper administrations and was Horacio Serpa’s running mate in 1998.