More than 400,000 soldiers and police were deployed across Colombia to guard Sunday’s presidential vote, El Tiempo reported. The size of that deployment says plenty about the mood in the country. In the days before the election, a series of attacks left civilians, soldiers and police officers dead or wounded.
Kristin Wesemann, who heads the Colombia office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said the country was living through “one of the worst waves of violence in recent years.” Security worries have crowded out much else in the campaign.
About 41 million Colombians were eligible to choose a successor to Gustavo Petro. The left-wing president is barred by the constitution from seeking re-election.
A crowded field, three clear favorites
Fourteen candidates were on the ballot. Polls pointed to three front-runners: Iván Cepeda, a left-wing senator from the government camp; Paloma Valencia, a conservative senator close to former President Álvaro Uribe; and Abelardo de la Espriella, a right-wing lawyer.
A candidate needs an absolute majority to win outright. Polls suggested nobody would get there, which would send the top finishers to a run-off on June 21.
A polarized country
The parliamentary elections in early March had already shown how split voters are. Petro’s left-wing alliance, Pacto Histórico, finished as the strongest force in the Senate, yet no party won a clear majority.
Whoever becomes president will probably have to bargain hard to build a governing coalition. First preliminary results were expected on Monday night, German time.
