For most pundits, a younger electorate is frustrated by career politicians’ shifting allegiances to best get re-elected and prop up a system that failed to deliver the peace process – armed groups and bandits are more active than ever – and has met public protest with state-sponsored violence in recent years. Mainstream candidates were firmly rejected, in fact, the current ruling party, Centro Democratico, didn’t even have a hat in the ring. All the while promoting themselves as anti-establishment and the agents of change. It pushed a more tempered narrative to calm market nerves and persuade voters that a left-wing leadership won’t tear down traditional institutions. The Pacto Historico has been more inclusive, with a popular AfroColombian Vicepresident, Francia Márquez. For the first round, only 55% of the electorate cast their votes – though still the highest in 20 years it leaves nearly half the voting public undeclared.ĭespite this, Petro’s result was a best-yet for a leftist platform in Colombia and suggests significant shifts in a population trying to put decades of internal conflict behind. READ MORE: Your Guide to the 2022 Colombian elections.īut wasn’t the May 29 first round a historic blow to Colombia’s elite?.Septuagenarian engineer Rodolfo Hernández is now unifying right-wing voters and on track to defeat Petro according to current polls which put the ingeniero at 52% and the former M-19 guerrilla at 45%. Then there was an anti-establishment former mayor, construction magnate and social media star standing on an anti-corruption platform and drawing in voters via homespun Facebook videos and Tik Tok. Meanwhile, a bickering centre-right split itself between various establishment candidates who polled badly. Petro successfully consolidated left-wing political forces – and some centrists too – behind his campaign for change and scored well in the first round. Surely, he’ll coast to victory on the June 19 run-off? Petro’s Pacto Historico alliance was the clear winner of the first round with 40% of the vote. Here’s a quick Q&A to remind us how we got here, and where we might go next. But I doubt Colombia – the country that brought us cocaine hippos, porn-star nuns and flesh-coloured cycling kits – has earned its current predicament: a presidential race between a divisive former guerrilla and a 77-year-old Tik Tokking construction magnate with no clear agenda who refuses to engage in political debate.įor many Colombians, the current run-off campaign between Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández will be a nail-biting three weeks with a less-than-positive outcome whichever way it swings. “A country gets the government it deserves,” said French philosopher Joseph de Maistre. Petro and Rodolfo will now face each other in the second round of the Colombian elections. Confused by candidates calling for ‘change’? Here we unpack the Petro – Rodolfo run-off.
0 kommentar(er)
