Former rebel Gustavo Petro won a second round of elections in front of a foreign political millionaire on Sunday, ushering in a new political era for Colombia by becoming the country’s first left-wing president.
Petro, senator in his third attempt to win the presidency, got 50.47 percent of the vote, while real estate mogul Rodolfo Hernandez had 47.27 percent, with almost all the ballots counted, according to the results published by the electoral authorities.
Petro’s victory underscored a drastic shift in presidential policy for a country that has long marginalized the left because of its perceived association with armed conflict.
“Today is a holiday for the people. Let them celebrate the first popular victory,” Petro tweeted. “May so many sufferings be dampened in the joy that floods the heart of the Fatherland today.”
Petro was once a rebel with the defunct M-19 movement and was granted amnesty after being imprisoned for his involvement with the group.
The confetti flows on Sunday at Petro’s headquarters in Bogota on election night. (Fernando Vergara / The Associated Press)
At its headquarters in the capital of Bogota, a message on the screen said “Thank you Colombia” or “Thank you Colombia”.
Outgoing Conservative President Ivan Duque congratulated Petro shortly after the results were announced, and Hernandez quickly acknowledged his defeat.
“I accept the result, as it should be, if we want our institutions to be firm,” Hernandez said in a video on social media. “I sincerely hope that this decision will benefit everyone.”
‘People are fed up’
The vote came amid widespread discontent over rising inequality, inflation and violence, which led voters in the first round to turn their backs on centrist and long-running right-wing politicians. choose two outsiders in the third most populous nation in Latin America.
Petro’s performance was the left’s last political victory in Latin America fueled by voters’ desire for change. Chile, Peru and Honduras have elected left-wing presidents in 2021, and in Brazil, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is leading the polls for this year’s presidential election.
Some 21.6 million of the 39 million eligible voters voted Sunday. Abstention has been above 40% in all presidential elections since 1990.
Petro supporters celebrate in Bogota on Sunday. (Fernando Vergara / The Associated Press)
Petro, 62, will be officially declared the winner after a formal count that will last a few days. Historically, preliminary results have coincided with finals.
Polls ahead of the second round had indicated that Petro and Hernandez, both former mayors, were in a tight race, as they led four other candidates in the May 29 initial election, although neither won enough votes. to win straight and headed to the second round.
Petro has proposed ambitious pension, tax, health and agricultural reforms and changes in the way Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed groups.
A voter votes Sunday in Bogota. (Guillermo Legaria / Getty Images)
He won 40 percent of the vote during last month’s election and Hernandez 28 percent, but the gap quickly narrowed as Hernandez began to attract so-called anti-petition voters.
It will be difficult for Petro to keep his promises, as he does not have a majority in Congress, which is key to carrying out the reforms. In the last legislative election, Petro’s political movement won 20 seats in the Senate, a plurality, but he would still have to make concessions in negotiations with other parties.
Hernandez, who made money in real estate, is not affiliated with any major political party and rejected alliances. His austere campaign, carried out mainly on TikTok and other social media platforms, was self-funded and based mainly on the fight against corruption, which he blamed for poverty and the loss of state resources that could be used in social programs. .
Presidential candidate Rodolfo Hernandez is leaving after voting on Sunday at a polling station in Bucaramanga. (Santiago Arcos / Reuters)
Hernandez rose at the end of the first round campaign ahead of the more conventional candidates and surprised many when he finished second. He has faced controversy, such as saying that he admired Adolf Hitler before apologizing and saying that he wanted to refer to Albert Einstein.
Polls say most Colombians believe the country is going in the wrong direction and disapprove of Duque, who was not eligible for re-election. The pandemic has delayed efforts against the country’s poverty for at least a decade. Official figures show that 39 percent of Colombia’s population lived on less than $ 89 a month last year.
The usual rejection of politics “is a reflection of the fact that people are fed up with the same people as always,” said Nataly Amezquita, a 26-year-old road engineer waiting to vote. “We need to create greater social change. Many people in the country are not in the best of conditions.”
People are watching a screen on Sunday showing the preliminary results of the elections in Medellin. (Joaquin Sarmiento / AFP / Getty Images)
But even the two foreign candidates left her cold. He said he would vote blank: “I don’t like either candidate … I don’t think he’s a good person.”
Silvia Otero Bahamon, a professor of political science at the University of Rosario, said that while both candidates are populists who “have an ideology based on the division between the corrupt elite and the people,” each sees their struggle against ‘establishment in a different way.
“Petro is associated with the poor, the ethnic and cultural minorities in the most peripheral regions of the nation,” Otero said, while Hernandez’s supporters “are the people who have been disappointed by politics and corruption. a looser community, which the candidate reaches directly through social media “.
Many voters were basing their decision on what they did not want, rather than what they did want.
“A lot of people said, ‘I don’t care who opposes Petro, I’ll vote for whoever represents the other candidate, no matter who that person is,’ said Silvana Amaya, a senior analyst at Control. Risks.” This also works the other way around. Rodolfo has been portrayed as this crazy old man, a genius of communication and an extravagant character (so) some say, “I don’t care who I have to vote for, but I don’t want him to be my president.”