Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus called for abstainers to exercise their democratic right and vote in Colombia’s second round presidential elections.
“Mr. Abstainer, you have in your hands the power to choose so that Colombia does not see a repeat of the National Front,” Mockus said at press conference Tuesday.
The former Bogota mayor said that in last Sunday’s first round election “51% of those able to vote abstained. Clearly and painfully it can be said that abstention won.”
For the Green candidate, one of his goals for June 20’s second round election is to convince abstainers to vote en masse.
“If half of those who voted for other forces, those whom were eliminated Sunday, join us and a sizable group of abstainers vote, we will achieve the result we want,” Mockus said.
“We have something in common,” Mockus said of the abstainers, “we are both anti-clientelism.”
Mockus said earlier Tuesday that he “leaves the doors open to all parties” to make a second round presidential election alliance with the Green Party.
Given that no candidate received the majority vote needed to win the first round election outright, the two most popular candidates, Mockus and Partido de la U’s Juan Manuel Santos, will now face-off in a second round election scheduled for June 20.