Without other program than denouncing corruption, sometimes compared to Donald Trump, Rodolfo Hernandez has campaigned mainly on social networks. The traditional right is eliminated from the race.
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Favorite of polls for months, the left -wing candidate Gustavo Petro won the first round of the presidential election, in Colombia, Sunday, May 29, with 40.3 % of the votes. The left had never obtained such a score in this historically governed country on the right. But, for the supporters of Mr. Petro, this victory has a bitter taste, as the unexpected breakthrough of the independent candidate Rodolfo Hernandez upsets the political game. With 28.20 % of the votes, the latter climbs in the second round, scheduled for June 19, and ousted from the presidential race the candidate of the traditional right, Federico Gutiérrez, known as “Fico”.
Former mayor of the city of Bucaramanga and millionaire, without party and without any program than to denounce the corruption of those who govern, Mr. Hernandez, 77, has campaigned mainly on social networks. “The engineer”, as the media calls him because of his initial training, posed as an anti -electite and anti -system candidate. Federico Gutiérrez was supported by all the right -wing parties, the economic elites and the current president, Ivan Duque (who could not represent). Mr. Gutiérrez obtained 23.87 % of the votes. For analysts, this collapse of the right and traditional parties also marks a historical evolution.
The day of Sunday took place in peace, throughout the territory. Mr. Petro voted at the beginning of the morning, in a popular district of Bogota, surrounded by his family. The safety of the left candidate, who moves with a caravan of ten armored cars followed by an ambulance, was further reinforced. A drone and a helicopter revolved around the polling station. Police protected the candidate with their bulletproof shields to his car descent. This security deployment testifies to the tension that has reigned in the country, since the start of the electoral campaign. More than three thousand five hundred electoral observers present have been distributed in the country
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The little grouped crowd in front of the polling station which charts “Petro President” was in a joyful mood. “We are fed up with all these bourgeois who govern us. I tell you that Petro will win in the first round,” predicts Jorge Puello, 62. In the evening, in the red living room of the Tequedama hotel where Gustavo Petro addressed his activists, the statements wanted to be enthusiastic. But the faces were worried. “The results say a deep desire for change, says Luis Fernando Velasco, a senator from the Liberal Party who joined Petro’s campaign. We are going to win.” At his side, an activist tempers: “Me, I am afraid. The votes of Federico Gutiérrez will refer to the second round on Rodolfo Hernandez, and I do not see how we will get there. “
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