the former senator Gustav Petro, favorite in all the polls, reached the nomination of the left; the former mayor of Medellin Federico Gutierrez will be the candidate of the coalition of the right and Serge Fajardo, former governor of the department of Antioquia, will represent the center alliance.
Former Minister Óscar Iván Zuluaga, for the Democratic Center, the party in power; the independent Rodolfo Hernández and Íngrid Betancourt, former presidential candidate and former hostage of the FARC, complete the deck of presidential candidates. The three chose to compete with the support of movements or signatures before going through the polls.
The profiles
61 years old, Petro he is a “progressive” leftist politician who fought the state alongside the M-19, a nationalist guerrilla of urban origin. He was imprisoned for a year and a half before signing the peace agreement in 1990. An economist, map lover and public square speaker, he shone as a senator and in 2011 he became mayor of Bogotá.
As a result of his garbage collection model -which took away management from the private sector-, he was temporarily dismissed. In 2018, with his second presidential campaign, he won the largest vote ever for the left, but ultimately lost the runoff.
His third advance towards the House of Nariño starts with a resounding bet of more than 4 million votes in the primary.
“The historical pact has achieved the best result of progressivism in the history of Colombia,” he celebrated after hearing the partial results of the consultation and the legislative ones.
He promises a reformist government that breaks with the oil economy, the traditional elites and with an emphasis on the environment.
In the antipodes of Petro, whom he defines as a “populist” and a “danger” to democracy, “Fico” Gutierrez it is outlined as the tab on the right, given the decline of the Democratic Center.
The 47-year-old former mayor (2016-2019) and former councilor (2003-2011) of Medellín is the youngest of the presidential candidates.
After winning the consultation with two million votes, he called for “protecting our democracy and protecting our freedoms.”
A civil engineer with conservative positions, Gutiérrez favors a firm hand on issues of security and violence, opposes negotiating with armed groups and questions the constitutional ruling that decriminalized abortion up to 24 weeks.
Known as “the professor”, Sergio Fajardo he is a moderate politician who represents the center. He was mayor of Medellín (2003-2007) and governor of Antioquia (2012-2015).
The 65-year-old doctor of mathematics and university professor is participating for the third time in a presidential contest, while facing accusations from the prosecution for alleged negligence in the cost overrun of a public loan.
Some 700,000 voters backed him in the centrists’ primary.
In 2018, he was third, after the current conservative president Iván Duque and the leftist Gustavo Petro. Fajardo, whom his rivals blame for an indecisive character, raises the flags of free education and environmental policies.
“The first stage has just finished and Colombia is waiting for us to unite it, to change it and to heal it from so many wounds,” Fajardo released after obtaining the nomination.
Some 38.8 million voters were eligible to vote in the country that, although it has one of the oldest democracies in Latin America, historically records a high abstention rate because voting is not mandatory.
In addition to defining the composition and eventual control of the Congress of 108 senators and 187 representatives to the chamber, voters will be able to participate in one of the three consultations to choose the presidential candidates from the same number of political coalitions.
Source: Ambito
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