As in the last three presidential elections in Colombia, there will be a run-off election for Colombians to choose their future president, a position that will be contested between the leftist candidate, Gustavo Petro, and the independent Rodolfo Hernández Suárez.
With more than 99 percent of the tables counted, the left-wing "Historical Pact" led by Gustavo Petro and with vice-presidential candidate Francia Márquez, leads with 40.31 percent of the votes, which means almost 8.5 million votes, according to the Registrar's Office's precount.
The second place goes to the independent candidate Rodolfo Hernández Suárez, who has teamed up with Marlene Castillo as his vice-presidential running mate. The duo, reaches 28.18 percent of the electoral preference -almost 6 million votes-.
Thus, Petro and Hernandez will face each other for a run-off election on Sunday, June 19, as neither reached 50 percent plus one vote to win the presidency of the Republic of Colombia.
According to Article 190 of its Political Constitution, the presidential candidate must obtain half plus one of the votes to win in the first round.
"The President of the Republic shall be elected for a term of four years, by half plus one of the votes cast by secret and direct vote of the citizens on the date and with the formalities determined by law", specifies the Magna Carta.
To give an example, in the 2018 elections, 19.6 million went to the polls, requiring just over 9.8 million votes for one of the candidates to win in the first round.
However, on this election day, one of the most important in the last decade due to the social discontent derived from inequality and poverty, a total of 39 million 2,239 Colombians were 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. However, the number of people who went to the polls to cast their vote is still unknown.
The total vote count is still pending, however, voter turnout was lower than expected, according to analysts.
This note was made with the support of a group of journalists who cover the first-round elections in Colombia, sponsored by Global Exchange in collaboration with Peninsula 360 Press.
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