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Colombians prepare to vote for continuity or change
Continuity or change is the choice for voters throughout Colombia this Sunday, in the second round of the Presidential Election, with one candidate seeking to end six decades of conflict via negotiations, while the other is determined to end all dialogue forthwith.
By James Blears
Senator Ivan Cepeda is the endorsed Candidate of the governing Coalition, The Historic Pact. He’s promising continuity, continuing the policies of outgoing President Gustavo Petro, by tackling poverty and negotiating with the National Liberation Army, the ELN, to finally lay down their arms. In round one of the Presidential Election on May 31st, Cepeda got 40.9 percent of the vote.
While lawyer, businessman and singer Abelardo de la Espriella, the candidate of The Homeland Party, who has no previous political experience, gained 43.7 percent. Nicknamed The Tiger, he wants to halt all talks with the ELN and build ten maximum security prisons. Neither of these two leading candidates reached the required fifty percent needed to win outright in round one. So Colombia’s forty million eligible voters, must go back to the polls again.
To the victor go the spoils. The new President must face the ELN with kid gloves or an iron fist, while trying to cement political alliances in Congress. But few available funds available, because there’s a fiscal deficit.
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