Colombia’s voters marginalized the country’s political elite in Sunday’s presidential elections.
All candidates who somehow were associated with Colombia’s political establishment were ejected from the race.
Opposition wins 1st round of Colombia’s presidential election
Opposition Senator Gustavo Petro and independent former Bucaramanga Mayor Rodolfo Hernandez will be vying for the presidency on June 19.
The victory of Petro and the defeat of liberal elite candidate Serio Fajardo had been predicted by pollsters.
The defeat of former Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez, the candidate who was endorsed by all parties of President Ivan Duque’s congressional coalition, surprised many.
Elections already historic
The first round made the 2022 elections already historic as they left the different elites without a candidate.
The shock ejection of both Gutierrez and Fajardo also made a possible result of the run-off election impossible to project.
With the exception of one, none of Colombia’s pollsters had predicted Hernandez’s success.
First election round results
The second round shuffle
Gutierrez and multiple government allies announced their support for Hernandez almost immediately after the National Registry announced its preliminary results.
Duque’s allegedly criminal patron, former President Alvaro Uribe, remained quiet after the preliminary results were announced.
Whether the liberal demagogue will accept the coalition parties’ endorsement is anything but certain as Hernandez has done surprisingly well without them so far.
The former mayor of Bucaramanga has so far only accepted the support of former candidate Ingrid Betancourt, one of Colombia’s fiercest critics of the notoriously corrupt establishment “machineries.”
Petro, on the other hand, has been negotiating with political parties about their possible support, and has the support of key former allies of former President Juan Manuel Santos.