Virtual neck-and-neck race in Colombia’s runoff election

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Candidates Gustavo Petro and Rodolfo Hernández, who will compete for the Colombian presidency in the second round of elections on June 19, are tied in voting intentions, according to a poll.

According to the first opinion poll, conducted after last Sunday’s elections, independent candidate Hernández has 41% of the vote, while Petro of the Pacto Histórico has 39%.

The poll, conducted by the Centro Nacional de Consultoría (CNC) for the news program CM&, with the participation of 1,200 citizens, has a margin of error of 2.8%, so the difference of two points between the candidates represents a technical tie.

However, it is the first time in the entire campaign that the ultra-leftist candidate of the Coalition of the Pacto Histórico is not ahead in the voters’ favor among Colombians.

In the first round last Sunday, Petro received more than 40% of the valid votes cast, while the former mayor of the city of Bucaramanga received just over 28%, relegating official candidate Federico Fico Gutiérrez to third place (just under 24%), eliminating him from the race.

Fico Gutiérrez announced Tuesday he would vote for Hernández in the second and final round of voting on June 19.

Petro, meanwhile, received the support of the vice president of the Centro Esperanza political movement, Luis Gilberto Murillo, as well as former Interior Minister Guillermo Rivera (2017-2018) and Labor Minister Griselda Janeth Restrepo (2017-2018).

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