1974 Colombian general election
General elections were held in Colombia on 21 April 1974 to elect the President, Senate and Chamber of Representatives. They were the first elections after the end of the National Front agreement, which had restricted electoral participation to the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party, with each party allocated 50% of the seats in both houses, whilst the Presidency alternated between the two parties. Although the elections saw both parties field presidential candidates for the first time in over thirty years, voter turnout was only 45%. In the presidential elections, all three main candidates were the  son or daughter of previous presidents. Alfonso López Michelsen of the Liberal Party emerged as the winner with 56% of the vote. The Liberal Party also won a majority of seats in both houses of Congress. Background. The National Front era began in 1958 when Liberal leader Alberto Lleras Camargo and Conservative leader Laureano Gomez wrote the , which led to a 16-year era in which the Liberal and Conservatives would alternate holding the presidency every four years. The Front was the result of a series of agreements between Camargo and Gomez, including the March Pact and the , and was  aimed at reducing inter-party strife was a response to La Violencia, a civil war between forces of the two parties between 1948 and 1958. While the National Front reduced violence and helped raise GDP, it resulted in bipartisan stalemate. The Liberal and Conservative parties held almost equal power in both houses of Congress and were unable to pass reforms with a two-thirds majority as securing bipartisan support for policies was nearly impossible. This inability to reform created intra-party factionalism that manifested in the creation of party-affiliated social movements. The rise of dissident groups opposing the National  Front challenged the establishment, and many would eventually become official parties prior to the 1974 elections. Liberal dissenters formed the Liberal Recovery Movement under Alfonso Lopez Michelsen in 1959. In 1961, the populist National Popular Alliance was formed by Gustavo Rojas Pinilla after his return from exile. As these movements gained power, by 1974 the original Liberal and Conservative parties had become weak and internally factioned, but no longer strongly opposed one another. Migration from rural to urban areas had also weakened party identification and loyalty. Electoral system. The president was elected by first-past-the-post voting in a  single round. Members of the Senate and Chamber of Representatives were elected by closed list proportional representation. The voting age was 21 and voting was non-compulsory. The number of seats in both houses of Congress was reduced as seats created to make an even number in each constituency during the National Front period were abolished.