By Regina García CAno and Astrid Suárez -
The Associated Press
COLOMBIA, Bogotá — Colombians will choose between a leftist and an unpredictable millionaire when they go to vote this Sunday in the presidential second round that promises to reshape the country after a first electoral round that punished the political class.
Polls show leftist Gustavo Petro and upstart Rodolfo Hernández — both former mayors — virtually tied since outscoring four other candidates in the initial May 29 election in which neither received enough votes to win, forcing a runoff. .
Some 39 million people are eligible to vote on Sunday, but abstention has been above 40% in every presidential election since 1990.
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Colombians are voting amid widespread discontent over rising inequality, inflation and violence.
Disgust for the conditions in the country is such that in the first round voters turned their backs on the usual centrist and right-wing politicians and chose two newcomers to the political scene.
Petro, a 62-year-old senator, is in his third presidential campaign.
A victory for Petro would end the long-term marginalization of the left by voters due to his perceived association with the nation's armed conflict.
Petro was once a rebel of the now-defunct M-19 movement and was granted amnesty after being jailed for his involvement with the group.
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Petro has proposed ambitious pension, tax, health and agriculture reforms, and changes to the way Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed groups.
He got 40% of the vote in last month's elections and Hernández 28%, but the difference narrowed quickly when Hernández began to garner anti-PT votes.
Petro could become the latest political victory for the left in Latin America fueled by voters' desire for change.
Chile, Peru and Honduras all elected leftist presidents in 2021, and in Brazil, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is leading the polls for this year's presidential election.
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Meanwhile, Hernández, 77, who made his fortune in real estate, is not affiliated with any major political party and has rejected alliances.
His austere campaign, carried out mainly on the social network TikTok and other platforms, was self-financed.
His proposals are based on the fight against corruption, which he blames for poverty and the loss of state resources that could be used for social programs.
He wants to reduce the size of the government by eliminating several embassies and presidential offices, turning the presidential palace into a museum and reducing the use of the executive's fleet of planes.
Colombian presidential candidates: Gustavo Petro, left, on June 17, 2018;
and Rodolfo Hernández, on June 2, 2022, in Bogotá, Colombia. Martin Mejia, Fernando Vergara / AP
Hernandez resurfaced late in the first-round campaign, beating more conventional candidates and surprising many when he finished in second place.
He has faced controversies, such as saying that he admired Adolf Hitler and then apologizing that he was referring to Albert Einstein.
Silvia Otero Bahamón, professor of Political Science at the Universidad del Rosario, said that although both candidates are populists who "have an ideology based on the division between the corrupt elite and the pure people," each sees their fight against the establishment differently. .
"Petro is related to the poor, the ethnic and cultural minorities of the most peripheral regions of the nation, who are finally taken into account and invited to participate in democracy," explains Otero.
While Hernández's people “are more ethereal, they are the people who have been let down by politicking and corruption.
It is a looser town, to which the candidate reaches directly via social networks.
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Polls show that the vast majority of Colombians believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and disapprove of President Iván Duque, who was ineligible to seek re-election.
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The pandemic set back the country's anti-poverty efforts by at least a decade.
Official figures show that 39% of Colombians lived on less than $89 a month last year, a slight improvement from 42.5% in 2020.
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The looming shift away from traditional presidential politics has raised fears in some in this conservative, mostly Roman Catholic country.
Many base their decision on what they don't want, rather than what they do want.
"A lot of people say 'I don't care who is against Petro, I'm going to vote for whoever represents the other candidate, no matter who that person is,'" said Silvana Amaya, a senior analyst at firm Control Risks.
“That also works the other way around.
Rodolfo has been portrayed as that crazy old man, communication genius and extravagant character of whom some say 'I don't care who I have to vote for, but I don't want him to be my president'”.
Both men will find it difficult to keep their promises as neither has a majority in Congress, which is key to carrying out reforms.
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In recent legislative elections, Petro's political movement won 20 seats in the Senate, a relative majority, but would still have to make concessions in negotiations with other parties.
Hernández's political movement only has two congressmen in the House of Representatives, so he would also have to seek agreements with the legislators, whom he has alienated by repeatedly calling them "thieves."
