Colombia began this Sunday the counting of votes to elect president between the leftist Gustavo Petro and the independent millionaire Rodolfo Hernandeztwo candidates outside the parties, with radical proposals for change for a country in crisis.
The two candidates arrived at this historic election tied in voting intention, so a very tight result could trigger protests due to the suspicions of fraud that Petro fueled during the day.
Voting closed at 4:00 p.m. (local time) and the official counting of votes began, which will determine the successor of Ivan Duke starting August 7.
The Registrar’s Office, the body in charge of organizing the elections, anticipates that by Sunday night the winner will be known.
“Today we undoubtedly have to defeat any attempt at fraud with a massive vote,” Petro wrote on Twitter after voting in Bogotá.
The 62-year-old senator and former guerrilla uploaded photos of adulterated ballots on his networks. The Registrar’s Office echoed the complaints and asked voters to request a new card in such a case.
Hernández, who voted in Bucaramanga, the city of which he was mayor, questioned his rival for “creating an environment of fraud.”
Petro He won the first round on May 29 with 40% of the vote compared to 28% for Hernández, in a punishment by the voters of the forces that have always governed Colombia.
But his advantage was pulverized after the game of alliances and a very aggressive campaign with leaks.
if it expires Petrothe left will come to power for the first time and if the victory goes to Hernández, 77, at the head of the country there will be a millionaire without a party who has trouble with the law.
“I want a better future for myself and for others. I don’t think whoever wins today is good, but it will still be a change,” 19-year-old cheerleader Valentina Ríos told AFP in Bogotá.
uncertain break
Around 39 million voters were voluntarily summoned to the polls in a highly polarized environment.
“Colombians have never faced this, not going where their enthusiasm points them, but instead going towards the one that will do them the least harm,” says Michael Shifter, of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank.
Harshly repressed, the protests of 2019, 2020 and 2021 reflected a deep discomfort in the face of inequality and lack of opportunities, mainly for young people, and fueled the decline of the government of Duke and later that of the traditional forces.
The pandemic worsened poverty, which today reaches 39% of the 50 million Colombians. The unemployment around 11% and informality 45 percent.
Drug trafficking and associated violence, with various armed groups expanding throughout the territory, will also be challenges for the next government.
Petro Y Hernandez they represent rupture and change, but with opposite models. The first wants to transform the health and pension system, and suspend oil exploration to make way for clean energy in the face of the climate crisis.
“The country needs social justice to be able to build itself in peace (…) that is to say, less poverty, less hunger, less inequality, more rights. If you don’t do that, the violence deepens,” Petro maintains.
Hernández landed in this race as a wealthy “outsider”, with an anti-corruption and austerity message.
“I am going to reduce the size of the State, to end corruption and replace with efficient and non-corrupt officials those who have been placed in previous governments and who are marked by incapacity,” he says.
“Least Worst”
However, Petro and Hernández agree that they will restore relations with Venezuela, implement the 2016 peace agreement with the extinct FARC and will seek to dialogue with the National Liberation Armythe last recognized guerrilla in the country.
“Neither of them is good, but we have to vote for the least worst, and the least worst is Rodolfo. The other has been a guerrilla and that is what young people do not see,” said Ruth Sepúlveda, a 54-year-old housewife. years, in Bucaramanga.
Both presidential candidates chose women with African roots for the vice presidency. The environmentalist Francia Márquez accompanies Petro’s formula and the academic Marelen Castillo that of Hernández.
Faced with the imminent turnaround, doubts and fears grow. Powerful sectors and the Armed Forces resist Petro because of his past and his reform projects, which they fear will affect private property and lead the country towards a failed socialism.
If he wins, the military will have to swear allegiance to a former guerrilla fighter in a country traumatized by a six-decade conflict with far-left rebels.
He also has a “personality that many associate with intransigence, stubbornness and with an ego that limits dialogue,” says Patricia Muñoz, a political scientist at the Universidad Javeriana.
With Hernández, a tongue-in-cheek politician who frequently backs down, uncertainty reigns. The tycoon who promises to eradicate corruption is called to trial for irregularities in a contract signed during his time as mayor, which could prevent him from governing.
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