Elections in Colombia: leftist Gustavo Petro wins, but goes to the ballot with populist Rodolfo Hernández

From the hands of a senator and former guerrilla, the left in Colombia is on track to win this Sunday the first round of presidential elections, driven by the erosion of the right to power and the social unrest that led to large -scale protests. Gustavo Petro led the official number including 40.3 percentage of votes, with more than 85% of the vote.

In second place is the populist candidate, Rodolfo Hernandezwith 28.17%, followed by the candidate from the right, Federico “Fico” Gutierrez, with 23.89.

At this stagethere will be a ballot on June 19.

Candidate Gustavo Petro, 62, did not have enough margin to avoid the June 19 ballot.

Rodolfo Hernández (77) an outsider millionaire, gave a surprise estimated polls and moved Federico Gutiérrez.

The left

The the left reaches the best result elections in this country historically ruled by elites, with the world’s largest cocaine production and rising rural violence, despite a 2016 peace agreement that disarmed FARC guerrillas. However, again abstention, which is approximately 50% in this country’s 50 million inhabitants, is flying high in the election.

Under the surveillance of approximately 300,000 soldiers and police, Colombians voted almost entirely in peace, in line with the electoral days of previous years.

Petro, who laid down his arms in 1990 after the demobilization of the M-19, the nationalist rebel group of which he was a member for 12 years, come to this election that promotes change and destruction.

“We are representing the will for change (…) I am confident that this will for change will be the majority,” the candidate said after voting in a popular neighborhood in Bogotá.

According to analyst Daniel García-Peña, “in the last four years the inequality deepens and the levels of difficulty, dissent and dissatisfaction, and who knows how to read and interpret and connect with voters is Petro ”.

This is how many voters feel. “The people who ran the country have pieces, so we need to change,” Luis Hernán Álvarez, a security guard who voted for Petro in Bogotá, told AFP.

At the end of this campaign, Gutiérrez aligned himself with the desire for reforms: “Colombia (…) yes you need changebut that change must be safe. “

Thus, the choice is defined between the radical change proposed by Petro, the moderate proposed by Gutiérrez or the uncertain alternative of Hernández, which includes his program in the frontal fight against corruption.

Duke was unaccompanied

None of the favorites are defensive the management of the conservative Iván Duque, who was not famous for economically handling the pandemic and faced large protests in 2019 and 2021 led by young people violently repressed by the public force.

The Historical Pact, the coalition led by Petro and Francia Márquez, the environmentalist who wants to be Afro’s first vice president, It comes down to getting the best result for the legislative leftalthough no majority is guaranteed.

The Office of the Registrar was questioned by inconsistencies in the preliminary count of those elections, which reduced votes in the Petro movement and other political groups. The interval of one million votes between the initial calculation and analysis doubt the transparency of the process.

In the absence of external auditing software used for the totality of the votes, the Petro campaign announced its own oversight, and expressed concern about vote buying. On Sunday the Ministry of the Interior said it had received 584 complaints about “election crimes.”

During the tense and polarized campaign, both Petro and Gutiérrez denounced the threats. His protection was strengthenedmainly on the left, who had to protect himself with a bulletproof vest and shields around him to ride the platforms for fear of a murder like in the 20th century, when five presidential candidates were assassinated.

Despite the fact that the Constitution prohibits the participation of the public force in politics, the military leadership also intervened in this tense and polarized contest to criticize Petro.

The twitter spread among businessmen, ranchers and the conservative sector who feared that the left would take the country to the abyss with his ambitious plan. to suspend oil explorationaccounting for a third of exports (13.5 billion dollars in 2021).

The senator also proposed reforming the public-private pension system and the police, which were implicated in human rights violations during the crackdown on protests.

Whoever wins will have to face a nation that is still healing due to the onslaught of the pandemic.

Poverty reaches 39% of the population, urban unemployment 17.2% and informality 43.5%. Corruption and the economic situation are the main concerns of Colombians, according to the company Invamer.

Source: AFP, AP and EFE

PB