Cabinet ministers resign following failure in Colombia's referendum

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, October 30, 2003

Cabinet ministers resign following failure in Colombia's referendum

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Several Colombian cabinet ministers offered their resignations after some proposals in last weekend's referendum were rejected by voters, but President Alvaro Uribe has not decided whether to accept the resignations, government officials said on Wednesday.

The whole of the 13 cabinet ministers will remain in office pending Uribe's decision, government officials said, as Uribe was to address the nation on television and radio to announce possiblefiscal measures.

The country's electoral authorities said that based on results from 97.62 percent of the votes counted, none of the 15 issues in the referendum got 6.26 million "Yes" votes, the minimum number for them to be approved.

Some proposals are likely to be approved though, but the key questions, such as freezing public workers' salaries for two yearsand reducing the size of congress, are still far from obtaining adequate support.

Government officials said some ministers raised to Uribe the possibility of reshuffling the cabinet following the defeat in last Saturday's popular consultation.

Uribe, who took office in August 2002, has reiterated that he is seeking to keep his ministers in their posts for the remaining four years of his term, but the opposition and analysts said he must rearrange his cabinet following the failure in the referendum.

Analysts say another reason for a reshuffle of the cabinet was the advancement of the left-wing forces in the regional elections last Sunday, in which former trade union leader Luis Garzon won the mayoralty of the capital city Bogota, the country's second most important political post.

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