Following a meeting with presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos, Liberal Party leader Rafael Pardo announced that while his party likes Santos’ proposal of a “government of national unity,” there will be no alliance with Partido de la U until after the runoff election.
Pardo said that while the Liberal Party would have liked to have taken a unified decision on who to support in Colombia’s second round presidential election on June 20, conflicting views with the party meant the directorate had decide to leave Liberal supporters to make their own choice.
The Liberal leader stressed that the decision was made in order to prevent a fracture in one of Colombia’s oldest political parties.
Pardo’s announcement follows confirmation by Santos that his Partido de la U had invited the Liberals to form a coalition government, if Santos is successful in his bid for the presidency.
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.
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.