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Alternative Democratic Pole Polo Democrático Alternativo
President	Clara López Obregón
Senate leader	Jorge Enrique Robledo
Founded	December 2005 (December 2005)
Headquarters	Bogotá, Colombia
Ideology	Democratic socialism Progressivism Social democracy[1][2]
Political position	Left-wing[3][4][5][6]
International affiliation	Foro de São Paulo
Colours	Yellow
Seats in the Chamber of Representatives	2 / 172
Seats in the Senate	5 / 108
Website
www.polodemocratico.net
Politics of Colombia Political parties Elections

The Alternative Democratic Pole (Spanish: Polo Democrático Alternativo or PDA) is a social democratic and democratic left party in Colombia^[7]political party in Colombia.

It was founded as a political alliance of the Independent Democratic Pole (PDI) and the Democratic Alternative (AD) in December 2005. Both parties opposed the neoliberal economic program, securitization and (para-)militarization of Colombia under then-President Álvaro Uribe.^[6] Nowadays, it is the only parliamentary party that has declared opposition to government of Juan Manuel Santos.

As 2009, a considerable part of PDA politicians consists of former guerrilla fighters who gave up armed struggle and demobilized during the late 1980s and early 1990s.^[8] As 2012, a considerable part of PDA politicians including the former guerrilla fighters, are affiliated by will to Green Party (Colombia)^[9] or to Movimiento Progresistas,^[10] or by disciplinary action to Marcha Patriótica,^[11] instead of PDA.

Political development

The PDI and AD initially had their own pre-candidates for the 2006 presidential race. PDI had nominated Antonio Navarro (former leader of M-19) and AD had nominated Carlos Gaviria.

In a primary election held on March 12, 2006, Gaviria won the presidential nomination of the PDA.

In the simultaneous legislative elections of 2006, the party won 9 out of 166 Deputies and 11 out of 100 senators.

At the presidential elections of 28 May 2006, Carlos Gaviria came second with 22.04% of the vote, 2,613,157 votes.^[12] This was the highest ever result for a left-wing candidate in Colombia's history.^[7] Thus, the party replaced the long-standing Liberal Party as the country's second force and main opposition party.^[4]

After the election, the PDA was successful in gaining the support of groups representing the indigenous movement which affiliated with the coalition.^[3] Also, on its fourth national congress, the guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN) commented favorably about the PDA's electoral performance and declared that political action should take precedence over armed struggle.^[13] Though, PDA is not related to guerrillas or any other armed factions as they clearly state in their founding doctrine: "We oppose to war and to the exercise of violence as means to political action".^[14]

The PDA could further consolidate its organization and gain support on a local level.^[15] In October 2007, the PDA's candidate, Samuel Moreno Rojas won the mayoral election in Colombia's capital Bogotá.^[16]

In the 2010 congressional election, PDA's support declined. It won 7.8% of votes and 8 of 100 seats in the Senate, and 5.9% of the vote and 4 of 164 seats in the House of Representatives, demoting it to the sixth rank among parliamentary parties. Before the election, a faction of the PDA had split off and joined the Green Party.^[17]

Clara Lopez was the party's candidate for the 2014 presidential election;^[18][19] she placed fourth in the first round of the election, receiving 1,958,414 votes, representing 15.23%.^[20]

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election year	Candidate	# votes	% vote	Result	Note
2006	Carlos Gaviria Díaz	2,609,412	22.04% (2rd)	N Defeated
2010	Gustavo Petro	1,331,267	9.14% (4th)	N Defeated
2014	Clara López Obregón	1,958,414	15.23% (4th)	N Defeated

See also

• Politics of Colombia


• List of political parties in Colombia

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Polo Democrático Alternativo.

• 
  Polo Democrático Alternativo (Homepage, Spanish)


• 
  Ideario de Unidad del Polo Democrático Alternativo (Party's political program, Spanish)


• 
  Democracia a distancia: Elecciones 2006 (Portalcol.com) (Information about the Pole's list of candidates to the Colombian Senate, Spanish).