For months, Gustavo Petro, the former guerrilla and Bogota mayor, has been all the talk ahead of Colombia’s presidential elections. The rich fear him, while many of the poor love his promises to redistribute land and wealth.
Sunday, he will finally know who his opponents are, with just two months to go before the presidential vote.
Colombia holds primaries and legislative elections on Sunday, which will bring greater clarity about the possibility of Petro leading a national swing to the left.
The new congress will have 108 senators and 188 Lower House representatives, and voters will also choose some of the candidates who’ll contest the presidential election in May.
Nervous investors are monitoring the voting closely. The result will give them a better idea whether Petro will be the nation’s first ever leftist president. He wants to end oil exploration, raise import tariffs and give “productive organizations” a say in setting monetary policy.
Polls are open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. with results expected on Sunday evening. Elsewhere in the Andes, Chile and Peru elected leftist leaders in 2021.
The election will also determine whether Petro, if he wins, would be able to form a ruling coalition and enact his plans. And presidential primaries held at the same time will give a clearer idea of who’ll be the main contenders facing Petro in the May 29 presidential election.
The vote comes a year after the country was roiled by its worst civil unrest in decades. The economy is currently enjoying a strong recovery, but millions of Colombians are still suffering unemployment and hunger, and the jobs market hasn’t recovered from the slump of 2020 when the pandemic hit.
As well as the congressional votes, three coalitions are holding primaries on Sunday, to determine who they’ll back for president in May.
Petro, who polls show has more than double the support of his closest rival in the presidential race, is expected to easily win the nomination for his Historic Pact coalition.
The Center Hope coalition has mathematician and former Medellin mayor Sergio Fajardo leading, polls show. He’s competing against former Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria and Juan Manuel Galan a former senator whose father ran for the presidency in the 1980s, but who was murdered by drug-trafficking mafias during the campaign.
A conservative group known as Team for Colombia is also holding a primary, with Federico Gutierrez, a former Medellin mayor the favorite to win.
Investors are monitoring whether Petro’s personal popularity will translate into seats in congress for his alliance. A recent poll by Guarumo suggest not: His Historic Pact would only get about 11%, it found, while traditional movements such as the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, the ruling Democratic Center Party and the Radical Change party will between them get more than half the seats.
