Bogota, Colombia — Colombians will go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new Congress and elect candidates from three major coalitions to compete in a primary-style contest ahead of the presidential election this May.
The election opens under heightened alert for political violence across the South American country, particularly in rural areas dominated by illegal armed groups.
At the same time, President Gustavo Petro, the nation’s first left-wing leader, has cast doubt on the country’s election software, pointing to legislative elections in 2022 after his historic Pact movement won 390,000 votes after a recount. He said the reason for this shift was the presence of election observers.
The European Union deployed 40 election observers in early February and said it intended to increase the size of the delegation for the upcoming congressional vote.
More than 3,000 candidates are running for 285 legislative seats – 102 in the Senate and 183 in the House of Representatives – with 41.2 million citizens eligible to cast their votes.
Sunday’s election is set to define the political landscape of Colombia’s next head of state.
Petro is ineligible for re-election because the constitution bars a sitting president from running for a second consecutive term.
Colombia’s current Congress approved Petro’s pension and labor overhaul, but rejected his proposed reforms to health care and tax reform, and there were frequent tensions between him and lawmakers.
Meanwhile, the right-wing opposition is looking to regain its status as a dominant political force. The Democratic Center, the nation’s primary opposition party, continues to be guided by the influence of former President Alvaro Uribe, who is mobilizing his base to gain a strong legislative presence ahead of the presidential vote.
In addition to the congressional vote, Colombians vote to select presidential candidates for the country’s three main political factions: center, center-left, and right. Similar to US primaries, the winners of the three “inter-party negotiations” will go on to compete in the presidential election, with the first round scheduled for May 31.
Presidential hopefuls have long used primaries to gauge their support before entering the first round of voting. The strategy worked for Petro four years ago, when he strengthened his base by winning a left-wing primary with his vice president, Francia Márquez.
However, the two leading candidates in the current election – leftist Ivan Cepeda and rightist Abelardo de la Espriella from the Petro party – are not participating in the optional primaries.
Political analyst Gabriel Cifuentes said the primaries are a high-stakes gamble for participants, with Sunday’s victory only meaningful if they show enough strength to compete with leading candidates like Cepeda and de la Espriella.
More than 126,000 law enforcement officers are expected to be deployed across the country on Election Day.
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