Colombia's Congress will begin discussing on Nov. 29 whether to approve the latest version of a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a deal that could shape the country's political and security landscape. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and his government chose to send the agreement to Congress for approval, rather than to stage a new referendum, to avoid the risk of having it again rejected by voters. Voters rejected the first version of the agreement Oct. 2. Since then, the state, militants, and the country's conservative opposition parties and movements have renegotiated the deal. Now, the government considers it imperative that the agreement be implemented in the year and half left before national elections, leaving it little time to gamble on a new referendum.

Time is running short. The administration's plan is to approve and to implement as much of the FARC peace agreement as possible before it must hand over power to the new government. But there is an even more pressing issue that the government hopes to beat by fast-tracking the deal: Opposition party Democratic Center, led by former President Alvaro Uribe, is calling for another referendum vote. Neither Democratic Center nor the Conservative Party appear satisfied with the final deal, since under it rebels will still be able to participate politically. The FARC would be unlikely to agree to any deal that barred its members from political participation.

Democratic Center is pushing for a renewed referendum because it has little other legal alternative to stop the deal from passing, and it could succeed by formally petitioning for one. But the courts are unlikely to require that a referendum be held if the administration can get Congress to approve the deal first. To be held, referendums must be approved by the appropriate government authorities (and potentially by Congress) and by constitutional courts or other national courts. Moreover, though a referendum has been held on the matter before, referendums cannot legally be held on matters of public security, which this could be classified as.

The government clearly holds the advantage over opponents to the deal in the short term. In the long run, the FARC deal could still be undermined in other ways. For example, certain elements of the agreement, including the creation of transitional justice courts and the incorporation of the rebels into civil society, will probably still be incomplete when Santos leaves office in 2018. Yet, Congress will likely approve the deal and its implementation will begin. Whether it concludes depends on the incoming government's willingness to see it through.