BOGOTA (Reuters) - A referendum vote on seven anti-corruption measures failed to meet quorum in Colombia on Sunday, nullifying the results even though each of the measures, including a reduction in lawmakers’ salaries and term limits for public posts, got at least 99 percent support. Still she said that passage would “give greater legitimacy to anti-corruption initiatives and send a strong message to politicians.”

According to Colombia’s inspector general, corruption in the country is equivalent to 4 percent of gross domestic product each year. Nearly 11.7 million Colombians cast ballots overwhelmingly in favor of seven initiatives proposed to stamp out corruption in the upper echelons of power, failing to draw the 12.1 million voters needed to pass the initiatives, according to quick-count results from over 99 percent of polling stations. Nearly 11.7 million of nearly 36 million registered voters turned out to vote on seven measures designed to battle corruption and improve transparency. Voters on Sunday will be asked seven questions that include whether to hand down tougher penalties on corrupt officials who now often serve out sentences in multi-million dollar homes; whether term limits should be imposed on lawmakers, and whether the salaries of members of Congress should be reduced by 40 percent. Right-wing President Ivan Duque, who promised during his campaign to clamp down on graft with term limits and stiffer sentences, supported the referendum and has called corruption a “cancer.”

However, several members of his party, including Alvaro Uribe, who is his mentor, an ex-president and current senator, said they preferred to support anti-corruption proposals in Congress instead. The former president is set to appear before the Supreme Court next week to respond to witness tampering accusations related to his involvement in the formation of paramilitary death squads in the 1990s. Uribe, a former Medellín Cartel associate and the leader of Duque’s Democratic Center party, led the push to quash voter turnout in what has been heralded as the “dirtiest campaign in history.”

“I do not vote in the Deceitful Referendum,” Uribe tweeted Saturday morning.
Colombia holds its first referendum since amending its constitution in 1991 and fails to pass anti-corruption measures due to low voter turnout.