Colombian voters — some of who voted at the consulate in Coral Gables — have selected their presidential candidates. The ballot in May will include six candidates. Voters selected three on Sunday, and the other three were not contested.
In about two months, the ballot will list the candidates as Gustavo Petro, Sergio Fajardo, Federico Gutiérrez, Óscar Iván Zuluaga, Íngrid Betancourt and Rodolfo Hernández.
Petro is the left-wing candidate for the Historical Pact party. Fajardo is the center-left candidate for the Hope Center Coalition party. Gutiérrez is the right-wing candidate for the Team for Colombia party.
Petro, a retired member of the former leftist guerrilla M-19, is the former mayor of Bogotá. Gutiérrez, a civil engineer, is the former mayor of Medellín. Fajardo, a mathematician, is also a former mayor of Medellín and the former governor of Antioquia.
During the 2018 presidential elections, Petro ranked second and Fajardo ranked third when they lost against President Iván Duque. The majority of Colombian-Americans with dual citizenship in South Florida supported the conservative candidate.
Two parties didn’t participate in the primaries and one of the candidates is running as an independent.
Zuluaga is the candidate of former President Álvaro Uribe’s Democratic Center party. Betancourt, a former senator who was kidnapped by leftist guerrilla fighters, is the candidate of the Oxygen Green party. Hernández, the former mayor of Bucaramanga, is running under the Anticorruption League.
The presidential election is on May 29. If none of the candidates get more than 50% of the total votes, the top two candidates will move ahead to a run-off election.
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