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The mayor of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's hometown, Aracataca, failed in his quest to have it renamed Aracataca-Macondo, to honor the Nobel laureate who dubbed his fictional town Macondo in "One Hundred Years of Solitude."
The sleepy river town in northern Colombia held a vote to decide if the change would get the green light.
But not enough voters turned out to make the initiative's outcome binding, authorities said Sunday.
More than 7,500 of the town's 22,000 registered voters would have had to cast ballots to make the result stick.
In the end 3,342 voted for the change and 250 against.
Pedro Sanchez, mayor of the steamy outpost in Magdalena department, said he just wanted a lasting tribute to the town's most famous son.
He also hoped to lure tourists. People who have read the book know Aracataca is Macondo and "this is the raw material for 'Gabo's' work," Sanchez said.
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AFPEntertainment-books-GarciaMarquez
AFP 260808 GMT 06 06
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