“Historical Pact” is the name of the alliance with which Gustavo Petro made history. The association of left-wing opposition politicians was able to triple its result compared to the last parliamentary elections. Now, after almost all of the votes have been counted, she has 17 out of 102 seats in the Senate and can draw level with the conservatives there.
In the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, the “Historical Pact” gets 25 of 165 seats, here the Liberals are the strongest with 32 seats. The party of incumbent President Iván Duque fell from 51 to 30 seats. Like Petro’s alliance, the conservatives received 25 seats. With Petro able to count on the support of the Comunes – the party that emerged from the dissolution of the FARC rebel group – his movement is likely to become the strongest force in both chambers.
Accordingly, Petro was already optimistic on Twitter. After most of the votes were counted, he announced the “largest progressive faction” since 1991. At that time, the adoption of a new constitution significantly strengthened democracy and the rule of law in the country.
The former guerrilla fighter Petro was also able to assert himself clearly in his alliance’s primaries for the presidential election on May 29. According to polls, the 61-year-old is currently the favorite for the presidency. He promises to distance himself from the country’s traditional elites and focus on environmental protection and reform.
Petro will run against Federico Gutiérrez, who won the Conservative primaries, and Sergio Fajardo, who will run for the centre. They are complemented by Óscar Iván Zuluaga for the ruling Democratic Center party, the independent candidate Rodolfo Hernández, and former FARC hostage Íngrid Betancourt the candidate field for the successor to the recently unpopular Iván Duque.
Despite the strict security measures, there were bloody attacks on election day
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Petro, who was a member of a left-wing rebel group until 1990, then became mayor of the capital Bogotá and finally moved into the Senate Lost to Duque in the 2018 presidential runoff. Since then, however, the country has fallen into a severe economic crisis due to the corona pandemic. In addition, despite the peace agreement concluded with the FARC in 2016, violence in the country has increased significantly again.
There were also bloody attacks on election day. At least two soldiers were killed in bomb explosions in the departments of Caquetá and Meta, the armed forces said. Two other soldiers were injured in the attacks. It is not yet clear who is responsible for the attacks. Paramilitaries, guerrilla groups and criminal gangs are fighting each other in Colombia. A total of 73,000 soldiers were deployed on Sunday to protect voters and candidates.
djo / sti (afp, afpe, ape, dpa)
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