Colombia set for combative run-off between opposites
THE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN DUQUE AND PETRO COULD SHAKE THE NATION’S PEACE ACCORD
We don’t want to tear up the accord. What we want is for the peace of Colombia to be peace with justice.”
Ivan Duque | Former senator
Colombia’s presidential election is heading into a divisive run-off between two ideological opposites as the conservative first-place finisher in Sunday’s voting took a hard line against the country’s peace deal while his rival pledged to champion the poor and excluded.
Former senator Ivan Duque won nearly 39 per cent of vote, falling short of the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a second round in three weeks. Onetime rebel Gustavo Petro got 25 per cent support, edging out former Medellin mayor Sergio Fajardo, who could end up being kingmaker following a surge.
The showdown between Duque and Petro could have broad implications for the nation’s peace agreement ending more than five decades of armed conflict that left at least 250,000 dead, 60,000 missing and more than 7 million displaced.
Duque is vowing to modify the polarising accord with changes to ensure that drug trafficking is not an amnestied crime and that guerrilla leaders who haven’t made reparations to victims are barred from political office. The signed accord allows former rebels who fully confess their crimes to avoid any jail times and transform into a political party.
“We don’t want to tear up the accord,” Duque said in his victory speech. “What we want is for the peace of Colombia to be peace with justice.”
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 Alvaro Uribe, the influential former president responsible for boosting his campaign. 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 “Humane Colombia” platform have drawn comparisons from critics to the late Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez, who Petro once admired. Critics have warned his rise could push Colombia dangerously toward the left and rattle markets in the conservative country.
“The nearly 5 million votes we received today are the votes of the youth, of excluded sectors far and wide across Colombia who have decided to burst in and say, ‘We are present’,” he said.
More than 19 million voters cast ballots in the election, the highest turnout in two decades.
The results were especially harsh for Fajardo, who tried unsuccessfully to form an alliance with like-minded centrist Humberto de la Calle, whose 2 per cent vote haul would’ve been enough to push Fajardo past Petro.
Fajardo conceded defeat but showed no sign of who he’ll support in a runoff where his 4.5 million supporters are likely to be decisive.