Citizen Option ( es, Opción Ciudadana) was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

founded November 9, 2009 at the national convention of the former

Citizens' Convergence The Citizens' Convergence (''Convergencia Ciudadana'') is a progressive political party in Colombia. At the last legislative elections, 10 March 2002, the party won as one of the many small parties parliamentary representation. In the election o ...

movement. In 2013, it changed its name again to Citizen Option.

History

Origins

The party was first created under the name of Citizen Convergence (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

: ''Convergencia Ciudadana'') by ''Luis Alberto Gil Colorado'' (former member of the M-19 guerrilla) in 1997. In 2002 it decided to help the government of president Alvaro Uribe without being part of it. During this time, it received politicians rejected by other Uribist groups due to their links with ''

Paramilitarism A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

''.

National Integration Party

The party then became the National Integration Party ( es, Partido de Integración Nacional), in November 2009 aiming to participate in the 2010 elections. It has been linked with the

Colombian parapolitics scandal The Colombian parapolitics scandal or "parapolítica" in Spanish (a combination of the words '' paramilitar'' and '' política'') refers to the 2006–present Colombian congressional scandal in which several congressmen and other politicians hav ...

in which Colombia paramilitaries were found to be influencing Colombian politics, and considered a "reincarnation" of the banned

National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing and Conservatism, conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was foun ...

, as well as other parties including

Colombia Viva The Living Colombia Movement (''Movimiento Colombia Viva'') is a political party in Colombia. The party took part in the parliamentary elections of 2006, in which the movement won 166 deputy seats and two senator A senate is a deliberat ...

and

Convergencia Ciudadana The Citizens' Convergence (''Convergencia Ciudadana'') is a progressive political party in Colombia. At the last legislative elections, 10 March 2002, the party won as one of the many small parties parliamentary representation. In the election o ...

. The imprisoned Senator

Luis Alberto Gil Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

is said to be a major influence on PIN. Among the party's candidates were many friends and relatives of politicians with links to far-right militias and criminal gangs. Since the March 2010 congressional elections, the party has held 9 out of 102 seats in the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and 11 of the 166 seats in the House of Representatives.

Citizen Option

The party changed its name once again in 2013 to clean the image of the party for the

2014 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2014. * 2014 United Nations Security Council election 16 October 2014 Africa * 2014 Algerian presidential election 17 April 2014 * 2014 Botswana general election 24 October 2014 * 2014 Comorian presi ...

. In the end, they got 5 senators and 6 representatives. in March 2015, they were officially accepted as part of the ruling National Unity coalition.

References

External links