Petro, Hernandez at a tie in Colombian polls
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The left in Colombia face hard competition.
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Left, Gustavo Petro, right, Rodolfo Hernandez.
On Wednesday, Colombia's two presidential candidates were almost neck and neck in a poll just before the June 19 run-off for the elections.
In the first opinion poll published since Sunday's first election round, Rodolfo Hernandez, a businessman, won 41% approval, compared to 39% mustered by Gustavo Petro, a leftist.
The poll, signed on by 1,200 people, was conducted by the National Consultation Center and has a 2.8% margin error. This number entails that Hernandez and Petro are at a tie.
Petro hopes to become Colombia's first-ever leftist president. Hernandez, on the other hand, has campaigned against corruption and has expressed refusal to engage in debate with his opponents.
Colombia's left takes the lead moving to 2nd round of elections
Colombians voted for change on the ballots in the Presidential elections. On Sunday, Gustavo Petro, 62-year-old leftist ex-guerrilla and former Bogota mayor took the lead by accounting for 40.3% of the votes after 99% of votes have been counted.
Petro is leading in the presidential race with a possibly historic ending that could make him Colombia’s first-ever leftist President in recent history. Meanwhile, Rodolfo Hernandez comes in second. Hernandez, a 77-year-old millionaire and himself an ex-mayor, is running as an independent and snatched second place with 28% of the votes. With that, Hernandez denies Petro the majority and now the two will take to the second round of elections later in June.
Hernandez, who ran on an anti-corruption platform, pushed out right-wing candidate Federico Gutierrez, former mayor of Medellin and the political successor of the current residing President.
Petro vowed Sunday to uphold his word and work to establish real change focusing on social justice and economic stability.
"A company cannot grow if society is impoverished. Profits cannot grow sustainably if the majority of the population (suffers from) hunger," he said.
