Voting for the first round of the presidential election began Sunday morning in Colombia, AFP noted.
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Incumbent conservative President Ivan Duque, who cannot run again, ushered in the official start of voting by casting his ballot in the ballot box at a nearby office of the presidency in Bogota.
On Twitter, the National Register, the institution in charge of organizing the election, declared the ballot "
open
".
Nearly 39 million voters are expected in 12,000 polling stations, where they will have to decide between six candidates, with the leftist opponent Gustavo Petro as their favorite, whose accession to the supreme magistracy would be a political earthquake in a country where the Conservatives have monopolized power for decades.
"Orderly Transition"
The offices will be open from 8 a.m. (1 p.m. GMT) to 4 p.m. local time (9 p.m. GMT).
The results of this first round are expected in the evening.
A second round is scheduled for June 19 if none of the candidates exceeds 50% of the vote.
“
Today, we Colombians are going to the polls to participate in this presidential election.
I invite all Colombians to vote with enthusiasm and joy, to vote without hatred, without prejudice, without bias,
” President Duque told the press shortly after slipping his ballot into the ballot box.
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“
We have one of the oldest democracies in this hemisphere.
We have one of the strongest democracies and it is strong because every four years we have an orderly transition
,” he said.
