Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla movement who has vowed deep economic and social change, won 40.3% of the vote, according to National Registration Office tallies, with 96.2% of the ballot boxes counted.
Hernandez, the septuagenarian former mayor of Bucaramanga, who has promised to fight corruption while he is under investigation for embezzlement, obtained 28.1%.
Petro, a 62-year-old former mayor of Bogota, has consistently topped opinion polls thanks to his promises to redistribute pensions, offer free public college and start changing what he says are centuries deep. inequality.
He vowed to fully implement a 2016 peace deal with FARC rebels and to seek peace talks with the still active ELN rebels, as well as halting all new oil and gas exploitation.
“People are showing that they are tired of the same thing, that they want a change,” said sound engineer Cristian Riano, 35, who was celebrating Petro’s victory in central Bogota.
That sentiment was backed by Daniela Cuellar, senior consultant at FTI Consulting Bogota, who said Colombians’ thirst for something different was clearly demonstrated now that the two candidates promising change were heading into the second round.
“This election is not about Petro, or a move to the left,” she told Reuters. “It’s about the people of Colombia who are fed up with the traditional political class and are looking for a better life.”
Young people are an important demographic for Petro, which has garnered support from around 50% of the country’s youngest readers in opinion polls.
His campaign has stepped up efforts to encourage youth turnout over the past few days, acknowledging that young people may need an extra push to vote over a holiday weekend.
Mr Petro rejected oft-repeated accusations that he was emulating the policies of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolas Maduro.
He says it is his opponents – whom he accuses of making the country dependent on oil revenues and being brutal towards anti-government protesters – who most resemble Venezuelan leaders.
SUNDAY SURPRISE
Hernandez has only risen in the polls in the past two weeks, boosted by his colorful social media presence.
He promised to end the privileges of civil servants and to govern frugally.
“Today we know that citizens have a strong will to end corruption as a system of government,” Hernandez said in a video released on social media. “The gangs that thought they would rule forever lost today.”
Despite Hernandez’s rhetoric, he is being investigated for corruption by the attorney general’s office following allegations that he interfered in a tender for garbage collection when he was mayor of Bucaramanga. , to benefit a company his son had lobbied for.
Hernandez denies the accusations and insists they are intended to derail his presidential bid.
His supporters said his anti-corruption ideas were more important than the investigation against him.
“I think he’s a new person, a person for change,” Miguel Ciendua, 49, a karate instructor in central Fusagasuga, told Reuters. “Getting out of corruption will improve everything else”.
Hernandez funds his own campaign and has relied heavily on social media, posting quirky videos on TikTok.
The fanciful content belies his personal knowledge of the suffering caused by Colombia’s nearly 60 years of war.
Her farmer father was held by FARC guerrillas for more than four months, while his daughter Juliana was kidnapped by rebels of the National Liberation Army (ELN) in 2004 and allegedly murdered in captivity.
Hernandez said he would explore peace talks with the ELN, continue to abide by the agreement with the FARC, strengthen law and order and create jobs, although details of his plans were few.
He spent Election Day with his family, and his campaign shared a video of a Hernandez in a bathing suit receiving a painting done by his young granddaughter.
Opinion polls had predicted that centre-right Federico Gutierrez, the former mayor of Medellin, would go to the second round.
Gutierrez, who has struggled to fend off accusations that he is the ideological successor to unpopular President Ivan Duque, told a crowd of supporters he would back Hernandez in the second round, repeating his assertion that Petro’s plans are a danger to the future of the country.
Turnout was 21 million out of 39 million eligible voters. It was similar in percentage terms to the first round of voting in 2018, with around 54% of eligible readers participating.
The results have been verified, Registrar Alexander Vega told reporters.