Colombia: Uribe’s Man Wins Runoff Election
The polls had been barely closed for 40 minutes when Juan Manuel Santos, candidate for the U (Unity) party was declared the winner in today’s runoff elections. With almost all polls reporting at this hour, Santos leads his rival, Antanas Mockus of the Green Party by a whopping five million votes.
A marked departure from the first vote on May 30th, opinion polls accurately predicted the second round’s outcome, Santos gathering about 69 percent of the popular vote against approximately 27 percent for Mockus. The remaining votes were either blank or disqualified. Many here had expressed the opinion that a headline grabbing military operation last week that liberated four important hostages, including a general, would sway votes in favor of Santos. However, it appears that the landslide victory had been predicated in the first round of voting, where Santos almost attained the 50 percent plus one needed to prevent a runoff. Many who had supported the dark horse, Mockus, had voted for other candidates, perhaps scared by the many controversial statements uttered by the eccentric but charismatic former mayor of Bogota.
Mockus did little to help his cause during the three weeks prior to today, alienating other first round candidates, even those with ideologies compatible with his own. Meanwhile, Santos invited all losing candidates, including Mockus, to join him in the formation of an unity government. The result was that other parties either affiliated themselves with Santos or chose to withhold their support altogether. While the final decision rested in the hands of the voters themselves, Mockus only slightly improved his numbers in the runoff (he had about 22 percent May 30th).
Security during elections has always been problematic in Colombia. Despite the massive deployment of police and military, several incidents marred the day. In the state of Norte de Santander, seven police officers were killed in an ambush near the town of Tibu. The ELN rebel group that operates in that region is suspected of having perpetrated the attack. In the state of Meta, three Colombian armed forces soldiers were also killed in combat operations against FARC rebels.
President Santos will be sworn-in August seventh, and faces many challenges in this country, where poverty still affects almost half the population and rebel groups still roam large tracts of the national territory. Colombians voted for the continuation of the Democratic Security program started by outgoing president Alvaro Uribe eight years ago, which brought the country back from the brink of being a failed state to a nation with high investment potential for its stability and strong economic growth.
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Have you read La Semana’s portrait of Santos post-election? They heap the praise on him; surprising from a magazine which has a few very anti-Santos columnists. Perhaps he is the man for the job now, and Mockus’ strict political purity struck me as dangerously stupid, not what you want to see from your president.
Semana is published by a company owned by Santos’ family, thus I imagine it’s hard for them to be completely impartial! However, Mockus is responsible for sabotaging his own campaign in a myriad of ways. All politicians have to play a good political game. Most Colombians are pragmatic, having endured decades of hardship that most people elsewhere will never know in their lifetimes…so idealism isn’t palatable to them (not yet, anyway!): they need realistic solutions. I must say, however, that these elections were like none before, demonstrating that democracy is firmly entrenched here and that Colombians are confident in their future.