Colombians face uncertainty as vote nears
3 Min Read
Columbians are facing an election where they are unsure of who they want, with a leftist leader and an outsider millionaire being their options.
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Gustavo Petro, a presidential candidate with the Historical Pact coalition, shows his ballot before voting during presidential elections in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, May 29, 2022 (AP)
Colombians will head to the polling stations on Sunday in an election filled with uncertainty for the people, with the top two candidates being former rebel and guerrilla Gustavo Petro and millionaire Rodolfo Hernandez.
Abstention is expected to reach record highs, with voters facing the option of electing Colombia's first-ever left-wing President promising reforms in a country riddled with corruption, poverty, and widespread violence, or an outsider businessman many describe as the Colombian Donald Trump.
The campaign leading up to the election has been very tense, with several candidates facing death threats during the lead-up to the first round in May, which saw the Colombian right-wing conservatives and liberals losing against the other factions.
Whoever takes the win on Sunday will have to fix up a country undergoing major crises, many of which surged under conservative President Ivan Duque, such as the economic deadlock in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, recession, drug trafficking-related violence, and a deep-rooted resentment of the political establishment.
The poverty rate in the country is a whopping 40%, and the unemployment rate is touching 11%, but opinion polls ahead of the key election have been highly inconclusive.
The socio-political climate in Colombia led to nationwide anti-government protests, which were ultimately, and controversially, crushed by the security forces in a mass campaign of police brutality.
Despite the uncertainty and the projected high abstention rates, Petro lead the first round with 40 points, pulling 12 points ahead of his capitalist opponent.
Petro is a member of the M-19 group, a guerilla organization-turned-political party that also made peace with the state in 1990, and he has been in politics since.
He used to hold the post of Mayor in the capital, Bogota, and has a wide popular base. He is currently 64, and he is calling for bringing social justice to the country so that peace could be achieved following more than half a century of turmoil and violence between the leftist opposition, the state, and right-wing paramilitaries backed by drug cartels.
"That is to say less poverty, less hunger, less inequality, more rights. If you don't do this, the violence proliferates," the leftist candidate told Caracol Radio on Friday.
Petro also named environmentalist feminist Francia Marquez, 40, as his running mate.
His counterpart, on the other hand, also named a woman as his Vice President to be, Mirelen Castillo, 53, despite saying recently that a woman's place was at home.
Hernandez is facing mounting criticism due to his lack of political experience and program, as well as his overall campaign, labeled lackluster by many.
He also served as a mayor, holding his office from 2016 until 2019 in Bucaramanga, but his unconventional politics and series of gaffes have left many wondering about the future of their country. For example, he mistook Adolf Hitler for Albert Einstein in a radio interview.
Polls will open for Colombia's 39 million voters at 8:00 am (1 pm GMT) and close eight hours later, with early results expected a couple of hours after that.
