Colombia presidential election: leftist former guerrilla and populist outsider head to runoff

Colombia’s election will go to a runoff between two opposing anti-establishment candidates on 19 June after voters on Sunday were unable to pick a president outright.

Gustavo Petro, a leftist former guerrilla and onetime mayor of Bogotá, won the largest share of the vote, with 40%, but fell short of the 50% required to win outright and prevent a second round. Petro’s rival in the runoff will be Rodolfo Hernández, a business magnate and social media firebrand, who is viewed as a conservative, populist outsider.

Voters in the South American country went to the polls amid a polarized environment and growing discontent over increasing inequality and inflation.

Hernández was a relative unknown until surging in polls ahead of the election. His campaign – largely carried out on TikTok – has been criticized for being light on policies and heavy on anti-establishment populism. He won 28% of the vote on Sunday.

“Today the nation of workers, of honesty, won,” Hernández said in a speech published on his Facebook page on Sunday evening. “Today the nation won that doesn’t want to go on, even for one more day, with the same [people] that got us in the painful situation that we are in.”

Federico Gutierrez, the rightwing former mayor of Medellín widely seen as a continuation of the current government of term-limited president Iván Duque, underperformed on Sunday, having only picked up 23% of the vote. He could prove kingmaker in the second round as his supporters are likely to switch to Hernández.

Petro, who has been a frontrunner in the polls for months, came second in the 2018 election. He has promised to make significant adjustments to the economy, including tax reform, and to change how Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed groups.

If he is able to beat Hernández in June, it would be the first time the South American nation has a president from the left. Petro’s running mate Francia Márquez is already making history as the first black female vice-presidential candidate.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES