Colombian voters check the electoral rolls Sunday at a polling station in Medellin during elections to select a new Congress, with rightist candidates, bitterly opposed to the peace deal with leftist rebels, expected to do wellCOLOMBIA - 12 March 2018: Colombians went to the polls Sunday to elect a new Congress with a resurgent right, bitterly opposed to a peace deal that allows leftist former rebels to participate, expected to poll strongly.The election is set to be the calmest in half a century of conflict in Colombia, with the former rebel movement FARC spurning jungle warfare for politics, and the ELN -- the country's last active rebel group -- observing a ceasefire.Polls opened at 8 am local time (1300 GMT), and will remain open until 4 pm (2100 GMT). "This is the first election in half a century when we will vote in peace, without the FARC as an armed group, but as a political party," said President Juan Manuel Santos, who signed a peace deal with the FARC in November 2016.The peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guarantees their new political party 10 of the 280 seats in the new Congress.The party uses the same Spanish acronym, which now stands for the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force, and replaced its crossed-rifles insignia with a red rose. "It's the first time in my life that I've voted and I do it for peace," said Pablo Catatumbo, a former FARC commander who is assured a senate seat.Opinion polls give the FARC little chance of adding to its 10 free seats, following a disastrous campaign during which its rebels-turned-politicians were largely drowned out by a tide of public revulsion over crimes committed during the conflict.Candidates were mobbed by angry crowds at rallies and the party had to cancel its public meetings. "The mere fact of not applying what has been signed would be enough for this agreement to be ineffective," said Frederic Masse, an expert on the conflict at Colombia's Externado University. "It would be a more pernicious strategy than to renegotiate.

Source: Egypt Today March 11, 2018 18:56 UTC