Colombia presidential election: Petro and populist outsider Hernández head to run-off

Two anti-establishment candidates will face off next month in the second round of Colombia’s presidential election after voters failed to pick an outright winner in Sunday’s first round poll.

The result saw Gustavo Petro become the first left-wing presidential candidate in the South American country’s history to secure the most votes in an election.

But he fell short of an outright majority and now faces a fraught run-off round on June 19th against second placed Rodolfo Hernández, a right-wing populist who experienced a remarkable late surge in support during the final two weeks of the campaign. Mr Petro got 40 per cent of the vote against 28 per cent for Mr Hernández who beat establishment favourite Federico Gutiérrez into third place.

The result means Colombia follows Mexico, Brazil, El Salvador, Peru and Chile to become the latest Latin American country since 2018 to vote out traditional establishment parties and turn to political outsiders in response to a decade of economic stagnation that resulted in waves of unrest.

A 77-year old political maverick who did much of his electioneering on TikTok, Mr Hernández will provide stiffer competition to Mr Petro, a former Marxist guerrilla, in appealing to discontented voters looking for an end to the conservative political duopoly that has ruled Colombia since the 1950s. Without the backing of any major party and little in terms of a campaign team, he is running on an anti-corruption platform and says the key to escaping poverty is to “expel all these political thieves”.

This is despite his own polemical tenure as mayor of the eastern city of Bucaramanga having been marked by scandal and multiple investigations, though he denies any wrongdoing. Notorious for occasional foul-mouthed outbursts, Mr Hernández was suspended as mayor when he struck a member of the city’s council on the head, for which he was fined. Eventually he resigned when public prosecutors investigating a public tender process that ended up benefiting his son asked him to respond to questions.

But as a wealthy property developer, Mr Hernández now becomes the establishment’s last chance at keeping the left out of power. Mr Gutiérrez immediately endorsed him in his concession speech on Sunday night. “Anyone but Petro’”quickly trended on Colombian social media as results came in while right-wing politicians moved to back Mr Hernández. Senator María Fernanda Cabral admitted on Twitter the results were a defeat for the establishment, saying the country wanted change but “not the suicide offered by Petro but the authority, order and prosperity which a businessman like Hernández offers”.

In his victory speech Mr Petro celebrated the defeat for the establishment claiming “an era has ended”. He also attacked Mr Hernández without naming him, citing the corruption investigations against him and warning: “You don’t combat corruption with phrases on TikTok.”