Presidential elections will be held in Colombia today and here is what you need to know about these crucial elections for Latin America.
Six candidates are running for president in Colombia. The favorite to be in the lead is Gustavo Petro, who has Francia Márquez as his vice-presidential running mate to win. Both are part of the coalition party "Pacto Histórico", made up of left-wing parties.
Behind Petro is Federico Andrés Gutiérrez Zuluaga, better known as Fico. This candidate, who chooses Rodrigo Lara as his vice-presidential candidate, is part of the right-wing coalition "Team for Colombia."
Third place is occupied by candidate Rodolfo Hernández Suárez, from the League of Anti-Corruption Leaders, who has 18 percent of the electoral preference to assume the office of president.
According to the National Civil Registry and the National Electoral Council, 39 million two thousand 239 Colombians are eligible to exercise their right to vote in Colombia and abroad during this year's presidential elections.
Of these, 20 million 111 thousand 908 are women and 18 million 890 thousand 331 are men.
Of this electorate, a little more than 38 million people will vote in Colombian territory, who will vote in one of the 100,809 polling stations, which will be installed in 12,263 stations throughout the country, 5,174 in urban areas and 7,089 in rural areas.
Outside the country, 972,764 Colombians will be able to cast their vote at one of the 1,343 polling stations distributed across 250 polling stations in 67 countries.
This Sunday, May 29, the polls will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the first election results are expected to be announced before 8:00 p.m.
This note was produced with the support of a group of journalists covering the first round elections in Colombia, sponsored by the organization Global Exchange in collaboration with Peninsula 360 Press.
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