COLOMBIA: BOGOTA: MAYOR RESIGNS TO RUN FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

Описание: (6 Apr 1997) Spanish/Nat

The controversial mayor of Colombia's capital Bogota has officially resigned in order to run for the 1998 presidential elections.

Antanas Mockus submitted his resignation to President Ernesto Samper saying he will finance his campaign himself to avoid what he called the "infiltration of illegal money."

The remark was a pointed reference to allegations that Samper's campaign was financed by drug money.

During his bid for mayor of Bogota, Mockus spent only 2-thousand dollars (U-S) compared to the (m) millions of dollars spent by his rivals.

Bogota's mayor Antanas Mockus has said farewell to the second most important political post in Colombia as he prepares to run for next year's presidential race.

The controversial mayor submitted his official resignation to President Ernesto Samper Saturday.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"On this date I resign as Bogota's Mayor to participate in the next presidential elections."
SUPER CAPTION: Antanas Mockus, former Bogota Mayor

Mockus said he will use his own money to finance his campaign to avoid what he called 'any infiltration of illegal money.'

He won office with a landslide victory in 1994 spending only 2-thousand dollars in his campaign compared to the (m) millions of dollars spent by the other contenders.

Mockus - a philosophy professor of Lithuanian origins - became popular after he bared his backside at a group of rowdy students to get their attention.

Then as mayor he got married in a circus tent surrounded by tigers and trapeze artistes.

Under Colombian law, anybody seeking to run for the presidency must resign from public office a year before elections, which are scheduled for May 1998.

By the same law Samper cannot run again for president.

In a recent opinion poll Mockus emerged third with 12 percent voter support, after Chief Prosecutor Alfonso Valdivieso and Interior Minister Horacio Serpa.

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