In Colombia, Rodolfo Hernandez created the surprise. This 77-year-old presidential candidate, millionaire and cantor of anti-corruption, jumped several points in voting intentions a few days before the first round of voting scheduled for this Sunday, May 29. “The engineer”, as the media call him, is now hot on the heels of the traditional right candidate, Federico Gutierrez, known as “Fico”. The question now is who of the two candidates will face the left-wing candidate, Gustavo Petro, 62, favorite in the polls for several months and guaranteed to go to the second round. Mr. Hernandez’s breakthrough upsets all electoral calculations. It worries the supporters of Federico Gutierrez as much as those of Gustavo Petro.
“Sunday’s results are all the more uncertain as abstentionism is traditionally high here, the election takes place in the middle of a three-day bridge, and polls in Colombia have often been wrong,” emphasizes Eugénie Richard, researcher at Externado University. Thirty-nine million voters are called to the polls. The Constitution prohibits the current president, Ivan Duque, from running again. The campaign was very tense. In this country that has always been ruled on the right, the possible victory of Gustavo Petro and his Afro and feminist vice-president, Francia Marquez, frightens the center and terrorizes the right.
The resurgence of violence and tensions has raised fears of a postponement of the elections. Sunday May 22, Gustavo Petro denounced “a threat of a coup against the popular vote”. The president denied the rumours, recalling that Colombia is “one of the oldest democracies in Latin America, with solid institutions”. But the confusion and unusual errors that marked the proclamation of the results of the March 13 legislative elections are fueling the discredit of the electoral system. All candidates call on their voters to be vigilant. That is to say if mistrust is strong.
“Colombian society’s desire for change”
On Thursday, the Head of State once again invited his fellow citizens to “vote well”. And not to “for demagogic illusions which, elsewhere in the world, have become this kind of rust that corrodes democratic institutions”. No one doubts that Mr. Duque is talking about neighboring, socialist and ruined Venezuela.
Federico Gutierrez served as mayor of the city of Medellin (2016-2020). At 47, he is the youngest of the candidates in the running. The mid-length hair, the informal talk and the open shirt, he is supported by all the traditional parties from the hard right to the liberal party. “Fico” poses as a defender of democracy and freedoms, facing the left-wing candidate. His attacks on Gustavo Petro served as his program and speech.
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