Colombian President Alvaro Uribe looks set for victory in Colombia's latest election.
With more than 80 per cent of the votes of the legislative election counted, preliminary results showed a coalition of parties loyal to the 53-year-old lawyer on course to secure majorities in both houses of Congress.
However, turnout was low with less than half the 26.5 million registered voters participating.
Politicians and analysts say the paramilitaries, organised as private militias in the 1980s, used yesterday's election to try to increase their power in Congress, partly to avoid being extradited to the United States on cocaine-smuggling charges.
Mr Uribe is now poised for victory in the presidential election in May.
The paramilitaries gave crucial financial support to their favoured candidates while using death threats to disrupt the campaigns of some opposing candidates, politicians said during the campaign.
"The paramilitaries played a decisive role in this election, particularly in the northern part of the country," Espejo said.
Dozens have been killed in recent weeks by the Farc, which traditionally steps up attacks at election time. Thousands die and tens of thousands are forced from their homes every year in Colombia's decades-old guerrilla war.