Following a six hour meeting Tuesday, the Colombian Liberal Party announced that it remains open to second round presidential election alliances with either Partido de la U candidate Juan Manuel Santos or Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus.
Unsuccessful Liberal presidential candidate Rafael Pardo said his party is prepared to examine offers from either contender, but added that it is up to the candidates to make the first move.
Pardo confirmed that he will continue as leader of the Liberal Party and said that at this point the party plans to leave supporters to choose for themselves who to vote for in the second round runoff election.
The Liberal leader stressed that the continued unity of the party is the priority.
Liberal Senator Juan Fernando Cristo expressed the party’s continued support for Pardo and agreed with Pardo that the 650,000 people who voted Liberal in Sunday’s election were free to vote for whomever they choose in the second round runoff election.
Cristo dismissed claims by Colombian media that Pardo and the Liberals are after bureaucratic positions in a future Santos government.
Given that no candidate received the majority vote needed to win Sunday’s first round election outright, the two most popular candidates, Santos and Antanas Mockus, will now face-off in a second round election scheduled for June 20.
In Sunday’s election Santos received 46.56% of the vote, and Mockus 21.49%, which suggests that while Mockus needs to form second round alliances with failed presidential candidates in order to win, Santos does not.