Colombia: Opposition parties defeat Petro’s leftist coalition

The candidates of the traditional and opposition parties won on Sunday the main mayoralties and governorships of Colombia in local and regional elections, delivering a defeat to the president’s leftist coalition Gustavo Petro.

Colombians went to the polls to elect mayors, councilors, governors and regional deputies in elections that, according to analysts, served to measure the Petro Government and that will influence the presidential vote in 2026, in which the president will not be able to be re-elected. .

Petro, a 63-year-old economist who was elected in August 2022 as the first left-wing president in Colombia’s history as a candidate for the Historic Pact, a left-wing coalition, has low approval ratings, according to polls.

The reforms that the president promised to combat poverty and inequality in the country of 50 million inhabitants have not advanced in Congress and a coalition that supported him in the Senate and the House of Representatives, including center and right-wing parties. , it disintegrated.

The winners of the main mayoralties and governorships promised in the campaign to restore security and promote works to generate employment with the support of private companies.

In Bogotá, the Colombian capital of eight million inhabitants, Carlos Fernando Galán, a 46-year-old politician from the New Liberalism party, won the mayoralty, obtaining 49% of the vote, more than 1.48 million votes, defeating the candidate of the Government, Gustavo Bolívar, who took third place and was surpassed by the independent Juan Daniel Oviedo.

Punishment vote for the government

“They are going to say ad nauseam that it was not a referendum against President Petro. But, that his main political ally, head of the list for the Senate and greatest interpreter of his project in Bogotá is in third place and outside the Council is a very strong message,” said Sergio Guzmán, director of the Colombia Risk firm, referring to Bolívar. Analysis.

Bolívar accepted his defeat and admitted that it was “a punishing vote” for the Historical Pact in the face of the poor results and the disillusionment with the National Government in the face of the expectation of change that Petro promised.

Former presidential candidate Federico Gutiérrez widely won the mayoralty of Medellín, the second most populated city in Colombia, and in Cali, the third with the largest population, businessman Alejandro Eder was elected. Both politicians are strong critics of the Petro Government.

The mayor of Barranquilla, in northern Colombia, was won by Alejandro Char of the opposition Cambio Radical party, with more than 70% of the votes, while in Bucaramanga Jaime Andrés Beltrán was elected representing a right-wing coalition.

In the governorates of the departments of Cundinamarca, Antioquia, Valle del Cauca, Atlántico and Santander, candidates from center and right-wing parties critical of the Government were elected.

“I congratulate all the leaders and representatives elected today, we will work to articulate their campaign proposals so that we can jointly build a country that combats corruption, injustice and faces the climate change crisis,” he said. Petro in a televised speech.

“Today democracy spoke out and it is our duty as rulers to abide and respect the voice of the people,” he added.

The elections took place in relative tranquility throughout the country, although due to acts of violence the elections were suspended in two municipalities in the southwest of the country, where voting should be held in the immediate future, reported the National Registry.

Although there was a high abstention, almost 39 million Colombians were eligible to vote and elect 1,102 mayors, 32 governors, more than 12,000 councilors, 418 deputies and 6,885 councilors among 125,906 candidates.