Front-runner presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos urged his supporters not to be complacent after a recent Gallup opinion poll showed him to be the favorite to win Colombia’s May elections. Second-favorite Noemi Sanin expressed a similar sentiment, saying the there is much work still to be done.
Speaking to Caracol radio, Partido de la U candidate Santos, who led the voter-intention survey with 34.7%, said “We must work as if we were last [in the poll] and up until the last day … The survey result is a satisfying indication.”
Conservative Party candidate Sanin, who got 23.3% of planned votes in the poll, said “There cannot be any triumphalism in this,” and that there remains a lot to be done before the national elections.
According to the poll, neither candidate is likely to receive the necessary “50% plus 1” of all votes in the first round, meaning that they are likely to go head-to-head in a second round runoff.
In the event of a second round between Santos and Sanin, the poll showed the result to be a dead heat, with Santos receiving 44.7% of the vote and Sanin 43%.
The conservative-leaning candidates came out on top in Gallup’s presidential poll on Wednesday, which aimed to give an indication of the popularity of candidates in Colombia’s presidential election race.