Colombia readies for polarizing run-off vote
Candidates present different visions for future
BOGOTA • The conservative protege of a powerful former president and a leftist former guerrilla who has galvanized voters with an anti-establishment message appeared headed for what promises to be a polarizing run-off election for president in Colombia.
With almost all quick count results in from Sunday’s presidential vote, former senator Ivan Duque was leading with 39 per cent of the ballots cast, short of the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a June runoff.
Former rebel and ex-Bogota mayor Gustavo Petro trailed in second place with 25 per cent, edging out former Medellin Mayor Sergio Fajardo, who garnered nearly 24 per cent and has not yet conceded.
Duque and Petro represent opposite ends of Colombia’s political spectrum and have presented dramatically different visions for the future of the Andean nation as it moves forward with a historic peace process with leftist rebels.
Duque is the handpicked candidate of Alvaro Uribe, the former president and chief critic of the nation’s 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. He is promising to amend important aspects of the accord like ensuring that drug trafficking is not an amnestied crime and blocking guerrilla leaders from political office.
Petro supports the accord and has galvanized youth voters angered over deeply entrenched corruption and income inequality. He is vowing to end Colombia’s dependence on oil exports and raise taxes on vast swaths of unproductive land in hopes of boosting agricultural production. Critics have warned the former guerrilla and ex-Bogota mayor’s rise could push Colombia dangerously toward the left and rattle markets.
“There’s a high degree of frustration with the political establishment and corruption which is widespread,” said Michael Shifter, president of the InterAmerican Dialogue. “And I think Petro’s standing in the polls could be attributed to that.”
The election has sparked fears on both the left and right, with Duque’s critics cautioning that his presidency would be tantamount to a constitutionally barred third term for Uribe. Though hugely popular among Colombians for improving security and weakening illegal armed groups, Uribe also presided over grave human rights violations by the military.
Meanwhile, Petro and his populist platform have drawn comparisons from critics to the late Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez, who Petro once admired. He brought Chavez to Colombia in 1994 shortly after the Venezuelan paratrooper was released from jail, where he was sent for staging a military coup.
Petro describes himself as a “strong adversary” of the neighbouring country’s current president, Nicolas Maduro, but his early ties to Chavez have dogged him throughout the campaign. His campaign likened the comparisons to fearmongering tactics by a traditional political class no longer able to court votes based on their hardline stance against leftist rebels.