Colombian centre-right presidential candidate Federico Gutierrez answers a question during the first debate after the preliminary elections in Bogota on Monday. AFP
Colombian centre-right candidate Federico Gutierrez on March 14 proposed a pact among rivals of leftist presidential hopeful Gustavo Petro following historic gains by the left in legislative elections on March 13.
Former guerrilla Petro emerged as a leading candidate for the May 29 presidential election after winning the left’s primary that ran alongside the legislative elections on March 13.
The 61-year-old former mayor of Bogota earned the nomination with 4.5 million votes on a progressive reformist platform of environmental protection.
Colombia has never before elected a left-wing president, but Petro’s success has the traditional right-wing heavyweights sweating.
“I will try to bring together those of us who stand for democracy and freedom,” said Gutierrez, 47.
The former Medellin mayor won the nomination on March 13 of the Team for Colombia centre-right coalition with close to 2.1 million votes.
Gutierrez did not have to wait long for one potential rival to back his aspirations.
Oscar Zuluaga, the candidate for outgoing President Ivan Duque’s right-wing Democratic Centre party said he would sacrifice his own ambitions after the party’s poor showing in the legislative elections.
“I have taken the personal decision to renounce the presidential candidacy . . . to support the hopes of Federico Gutierrez,” Zuluaga said on Twitter.
That move propelled Gutierrez into the position of the leading opponent to Petro.
“What is at stake here is the country, which is threatened by populist and authoritarian projects,” said Gutierrez.
He urged centrist coalition candidate Sergio Fajardo, who earned his nomination with 723,000 votes, to join him.
Fajardo was quick to dismiss it.
“We were in opposition to President Duque . . . it won’t be Federico Gutierrez, the candidate associated with the government of President Duque, supported by the Democratic Center, who will lead a change in Colombia,” said Fajardo.
Duque, who beat Petro in a second round run-off in 2018, is barred from standing for re-election by the Colombian constitution.
He will leave office in August with rock bottom public support as the traditional political powers pay for the corruption that continues to pervade the country’s political system.
With almost all legislative votes counted, the left’s Historical Pact coalition looked set to win 16 of 102 seats in the upper house of Congress – level with the Conservatives and ahead of the Liberals on 15.
In the lower house, it looks set to take 25 of the 165 seats in a tie with the Conservatives and behind the Liberals on 32.
The process on March 13 was to yield three presidential contenders from 15 candidates hoping to represent groups of politically aligned parties – one each for the left, right and centre.
Three others had already been chosen by their respective groupings.
The six finalists will face off in a first round of presidential elections on May 29, which, in the event no candidate wins an outright majority, will be followed by a runoff on June 19.
