Candidates and Juan Manuel Santos cast their votes in the second and deciding round of Colombia’s 2010-2014 presidential elections, reports El Tiempo.
Both Green Party candidate Mockus and Partido de la U’s Santos, who are going head-to-head in the runoff election, cast their votes in Bogota on Sunday morning and made public addresses to the Colombian people, encouraging them to follow suit.
Antanas Mockus went to Bogota’s Hemeroteca Nacional polling station, accompanied by his wife Adriana Cordoba. After voting he urged the Colombian people not to abstain.
“Voting is essential, one must vote, I invite people to vote this Sunday,” said the Green Party candidate.
On casting his vote, accompanied by his family and running mate Angelino Garzon, Santos expressed a similar sentiment.
He said, “I want to invite you to score a goal, but a goal against abstinence … because this is the best game we can play, the game for Colombia and its future.”
Santos’ World Cup-themed message echoed that of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe who, on casting his vote, told citizens to carry out their electoral duty first and watch the soccer later.
“To watch the World Cup games is fun, sports unites humanity. But it’s more fun after having voted,” said the president.
Colombia’s second round of elections seem so far to have had a significantly lower turn-out than the first round on May 30.
According to reports, at 2PM, two hours before polls close, only 6,950,345 Colombians had cast their votes in this election, down roughly 11% compared to the the amount of votes registered by the same time during the May 30 first round presidential election.
The poor turnout has been attributed to guerrilla violence and extremely heavy rain in several parts of the country.
Colombia’s National Registrar said it hopes that the election result will be known by 5.30PM, one and a half hours after polling stations close.