Colombia bill allowing Uribe re-election takes blow

* Lawmakers nervous about court probe of process

* Uribe seen easily winning re-election

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, June 19 (Reuters) - The final vote on a bill aimed at letting popular Colombian President Alvaro Uribe seek a third term next year was postponed on Friday, decreasing chances it will pass in time to allow him to run.

Different versions of the measure have passed the Senate and lower House. A bicameral reconciliation commission put aside the bill until Congress reconvenes on July 20.

The committee appeared to have enough votes to pass the proposal, which calls for a voter referendum asking for a change in the constitution to allow an immediate third term.

But lawmakers are nervous about a court investigation into the legality of the process by which Uribe's supporters collected signatures in support of the referendum proposal.

The presidential election is only 11 months away.

If the proposal passes the committee, it would have to be reviewed by the Constitutional Court, a process that could take up to six months, according to legal experts.

Election authorities have said it would take at least three months after that to organize a voter referendum.

"At this point, the main enemy of another re-election is time," opposition Senator Juan Manuel Galan told Reuters.

Opinion polls say Uribe could easily win another presidential vote. But Galan, like many Colombians, believes a third term would upset the democratic balance of powers.

Administration officials have lobbied for the re-election measure, but the president has not said whether he will run if given the chance, leaving the political picture in limbo.

Uribe is the first Colombian leader credited with taking responsibility for security matters in a country long plagued by cocaine violence. Congress already changed the law once to allow him to run for re-election in 2006.

The bespectacled former cattle rancher is a hero among his supporters for ordering the military to crack down on leftist FARC guerrillas, who are widely despised for using kidnapping and extortion to fund their 45-year-old insurgency.

Crime rates have plummeted in many urban areas since Uribe was first elected in 2002. But his government has been plagued by scandals in which allied lawmakers have been linked to right-wing death squads and soldiers have gunned down innocent civilians to pass their bodies off as rebels killed in combat. (Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Peter Cooney)