The triumph of Gustavo Petro was sung and it happened as expected. The leader of the Historical Pact received more than 80% of the more than five million votes that at 8:00 pm at night (2:00 am in Spain); Thus marking the field of play that will be a tough battle in the first round for the presidency of Colombia, which will take place on May 27.
With this significant support in his pocket and the Historical Pact leading the vote both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives, Petro will get up early to receive support and seal an alliance with the Liberal Party, especially, which at this time is the third force in Congress (the second place is occupied by the Conservative Party, a key player for right-wing presidential candidates) and whose electoral machinery is crucial to reach the House of Nariño in that first round.
In his celebration speech, Petro said: “What we have obtained is a huge victory throughout Colombia. In a good part of the country we are the first place in the House of Representatives in each department, and in some we are going for more than one seat. We are the first force in the Senate of the Republic. The Historical Pact has obtained the best result of progress in the history of the Republic of Colombia. In the presidential elections, projected data, we exceeded six million votes. We are 'ad portas' to win the Presidency of Colombia in the first presidential round”, he stated.
However, from now on not everything will be so easy for the official candidate of the left. The time has come to nominate his presidential formula, which in the Historical Pact had been said would be the one who would be left with the second vote of that coalition. In this case, Francia Márquez, the star woman of the day because she is a social leader, a fighter for human rights and a representative of the Afro-Colombian victims and communities historically plagued by the armed conflict, forced more than 680 thousand votes.
However, Petro has been moving away from that idea, knowing that the vice presidency is one of the jewels in the crown that could offer third electoral barons a change of support in May. This could bring fractures in the left, which has managed to stabilize together. The candidate said that this week will be taken to define, that is, to negotiate.
The other winner was Federico Gutiérrez, who led the voting intention to be the candidate of Team Colombia, an alliance of center-right political forces, which on Sunday night joined the stage to surround 'Fico' and show that They will move their bases and voters to vote for the former mayor of Medellín. With an emotional speech and feeling like Petro's opponent, Gutiérrez spoke to the Colombia of the regions, describing himself as a fighter from the media class, willing to bring order, improve security, promote the economy and fight against corrupt, a word that speaks to many of the voters on the right. Among them, the orphans of the Democratic Center, the government party that had a great setback in the vote for Congress (achieves 13 senators, losing 6), now located in sixth place in the Senate, and in fourth position in the House.
In the Team for Colombia there was an important loser, Alex Char, who will have to postpone his presidential aspirations and rethink his way of doing politics when assuming that his local and regional popularity would be worth the support of the rest of the country, which little knows of the former Mayor of Barranquilla, but all his economic power and investigations to buy votes and aggressive movements of his political machinery. Undoubtedly an electoral baron who will support Gutiérrez, but he is not able to tip the balance against the weight charged by the left.
At the Centro Esperanza Coalition, the night was bittersweet. Happy Sergio Fajardo, doctor in mathematics, academic, former mayor of Medellín and former governor of Antioquia, who added the majority of votes, but without exceeding one million, in third place that takes him a little away from the possibility of winning the position to dispute with Petro the presidency in the second round. In Fajardo he was seen to be happy and, as a lover of cycling, he noted that "the first stage has just finished and Colombia is waiting for us to unite it and heal it from so many wounds", for which it will not only need the true support of its opponents – after bitter and painful fights between the pre-candidates of that coalition -, if they do not convince many of the eight million potential voters who did not vote.
Colombia goes to bed with a clearer vision of what is on the way. That is, eight presidential candidates are defined (Petro, Gutiérrez, Fajardo, who were defined today; Íngrid Betancourt, Luis Pérez, Óscar Iván Zuluaga, Germán Córdoba and Rodolfo Hernández, candidates who did not join the consultations to subscribe directly to the first lap). However, this list is expected to be reduced to four or five before the month of May.
The country will wake up to see that the political scene is shuffled again. A new and final game. Now the coalitions have their official candidate, the opinion vote is quoted on the rise for the presidential ones; Congress, with clear leadership from the left and center left, will bring about changes and will be crucial in defining the next president. But only the Colombians will give the last word.
