BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — Former guerrilla Gustavo Petro narrowly won a runoff election over a millionaire political outcast on Sunday, ushering in a new political era for Colombia by becoming the country’s first leftist president.
Petro, a senator in his third attempt to win the presidency, obtained 50.47% of the votes, while real estate tycoon Rodolfo Hernández obtained 47.27%, with almost all the ballots counted, according to the results released by the authorities. electoral.
Petro’s victory underscored a drastic change in presidential politics in a country that has long marginalized the left because of its perceived association with armed conflict.
“Today is a day of celebration for the people. Let them celebrate the first popular victory,” Petro tweeted. “May so many sufferings be cushioned in the joy that today floods the heart of the Homeland.”
Petro was once a rebel of the now-defunct M-19 movement and was granted amnesty after being jailed for his involvement with the group.
At its headquarters in the capital city of Bogotá, a message on a screen read: “Thank you Colombia” or “Thank you Colombia.”
Outgoing Conservative President Iván Duque congratulated Petro shortly after the results were announced, and Hernández was quick to concede defeat.
“I accept the result, as it should be, if we want our institutions to be firm,” Hernández said in a video on social media. “I sincerely hope that this decision will be beneficial to all.”
The vote came amid widespread discontent over rising inequality, inflation and violence, factors that led voters in the first round of elections last month to turn their backs on centrist and leftist politicians. long-ruling right wing and electing two outsiders in Latin America’s most important third round. populous nation.
Petro’s performance was the latest political victory for the left in Latin America fueled by voters’ desire for change. Chile, Peru and Honduras all elected leftist presidents in 2021, and in Brazil, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is leading the polls for this year’s presidential election.
About 21.6 million of the 39 million eligible voters cast ballots on Sunday. Abstentionism has been above 40% in all presidential elections since 1990.
Petro, 62, will be officially declared the winner after a formal count that will take a few days. Historically, preliminary results have coincided with final ones.
Polls before the second round indicated that Petro and Hernandez, both former mayors, had been in a close race since beating four other candidates in the initial elections on May 29. Neither got enough votes to win outright and headed to the runoff.
Petro has proposed ambitious pension, tax, health and agriculture reforms and changes to the way Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed groups.
He got 40% of the vote in the initial round and Hernández 28%, but the difference was quickly reduced when Hernández began to attract so-called anti-PT voters.
Petro will find it difficult 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 elections, Petro’s political movement won 20 seats in the Senate, a plurality, but would still have to make concessions in negotiations with other parties.
Hernández, who made his fortune in real estate, is not affiliated with any major political party and has rejected alliances. His austere campaign, carried out mainly on TikTok and other social media platforms, was self-financed and based mainly on the fight against corruption, which he blames for poverty and the loss of state resources that could be used for social programs.
Hernandez resurfaced late in the first-round campaign, beating more conventional candidates and surprising many when he finished second. He faced controversy, including saying that he admired Adolf Hitler before apologizing and saying that he was referring to Albert Einstein.
Polls say most Colombians believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and disapprove of Duque, who was ineligible to seek re-election. The pandemic set back the country’s anti-poverty efforts by at least a decade. Official figures show that 39% of Colombians lived on less than $89 a month last year.
The rejection of politics as usual “is a reflection that people are fed up with the same people as always,” said Nataly Amezquita, a 26-year-old civil engineer who hopes to vote. “We have to generate greater social change. A lot of people in the country are not in the best condition.”
But even the two outside candidates left her cold. She said that she would cast a blank vote: “I like neither of the two candidates… Neither of them seems like a good person to me.”
Silvia Otero Bahamón, professor of Political Science at the Universidad del Rosario, said that although both candidates are populists who “have an ideology based on the division between the corrupt elite and the people,” each sees their fight against the establishment differently. .
“Petro relates to the poor, the ethnic and cultural minorities of the most peripheral regions of the nation,” said Otero, while Hernández’s supporters “are the people who have been defrauded by politics and corruption. It is a looser community, to which the candidate reaches directly through social networks”.
Many voters based their decision on what they don’t want, rather than what they do want.
“Many people said: ‘I don’t care who is against Petro, I am going to vote for whoever represents the other candidate, no matter who that person is,'” said Silvana Amaya, senior analyst at firm Control. Risks. “That also works the other way around. Rodolfo has been portrayed as that crazy old man, communication genius and extravagant character (so much so) that some say: ‘I don’t care who I have to vote for, but I don’t want him to be my president’”.
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García Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela.
Regina Garcia Cano and Astrid Suarez, The Associated Press
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