Published on: 06/20/2022 – 00:11 Modified on: 06/20/2022 – 00:18
Socialist Gustavo Petro, a 62-year-old economist, was elected President of the Republic of Colombia this Sunday, June 19, 2022. The senator won with 50.49% of the vote to 47.26% for his independent opponent Rodolfo Hernández, a 77-year-old millionaire engineer and entrepreneur. For the first time in two centuries, the right was absent in the second ballot.
About 11,272,740 votes for Mr. Petro versus 10,551,520 for his rival Rodolfo Hernández, according to the almost final results communicated by the National Registerresponsible for organizing the vote (99.76% of the votes cast).
Gustavo Petro is the first elected left-wing president in Colombia’s history. “Today is a holiday for the people. Let him celebrate the first people’s victory,” wrote the ex-guerrilla, who had converted to the Social Democrat, on Twitter.
Hoy es dia de fiesta para el pueblo. Que festje la primera victoria popular. Que tantos sufrimientos amortuen en la alegria que hoy inunda el corazón de la Patria.
Esta victoria para Dios y para el Pueblo y su historia. Hoy es el dia de las calles y las plazas.
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) June 19, 2022
Rodolfo Hernández himself conceded defeat. “Today, the majority of citizens voted for the other candidate. (…) I accept the result as it is,” he said in a live stream on Facebook. “I wish Dr. Gustavo Petro for knowing how to run the country and staying true to his anti-corruption speech. »
Also the outgoing President, the conservative Iván Duque, took to Twitter: “I called @PetroGustavo to congratulate him as the President-elect of the Colombian people,” he wrote, “we agreed to meet in the next few days to a harmonious, institutional and transparent transition”.
Llame a @PetroGustavo para felicitarlo como electo electo de los colombianos. Acordamos reunirnos en los próximos días para iniciar una transición armónica, institutional y transparent.
— Ivan Duque 🇨🇴 (@IvanDuque) June 19, 2022
During the election campaign, the elected president promised major economic and social changes, summed up in the catchphrase “politics of love”. Indeed, the adversary of the former mayor of Bogotá is inequality.
On the agenda: free universities, public health and pension systems, ecological transition, promoting an economy based on agriculture and tourism, and resuming negotiations with armed groups to pacify the country.
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