BOGOTA, Colombia:  Colombians will vote for a brand new president on Sunday in an election stuffed with uncertainty, as former guerrilla Gustavo Petro and millionaire businessman Rodolfo Hernandez vie for energy in a rustic saddled with in style poverty, violence and different woes. Abstention is anticipated to be prime as citizens face a stark selection between electing their first ever left-wing president or plumping for a maverick outsider dubbed the Colombian Donald Trump.

“What we have now now within the nation are questions, uncertainties,” Patricia Ines Munoz, knowledgeable on the Pontifical Javerian College, informed AFP. It’s been a anxious marketing campaign, with demise threats in opposition to a number of applicants forward of the primary spherical closing month, when Colombia’s conventional conservative and liberal powers have been dealt a chastening defeat.

There are fears a good outcome on Sunday may spark post-election violence. The successor to conservative President Ivan Duque should handle a rustic in disaster, reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, recession, a spike in drug-trafficking similar violence and deep-rooted anger on the political status quo.

Nearly 40 % of the rustic lives in poverty whilst 11 % are unemployed. That anger spilled over into mass anti-government protests in April 2021 that have been controversially overwhelmed by means of the protection forces. Opinion polls within the lead as much as the election were inconclusive, even though abstention is anticipated to be 45 % with as much as some other 5 % unsure. “I believe very bewildered … I don’t like both of the 2 choices as president,” Camila Araque, 29, a attorney in Bogota, informed AFP.

‘Comprehensible hysteria’

Michael Shifter, from the Inter-American Discussion suppose tank, says citizens “are attempting to determine who’s the lesser of 2 evils.” Petro with ease crowned the primary spherical of balloting with 40 %, 12 issues forward of Hernandez. However Petro’s previous as a thorough leftist city guerrilla within the Nineteen Eighties-during which era he spent two years in jail on hands charges-has left many Colombians anxious. He has been in politics since his M-19 crew made peace with the state in 1990 and shaped a political birthday party.

“The concern comes from the revel in of leftist governments within the area,” stated Munoz, “now not simply amongst voters but in addition the trade and financial sectors.” Some imagine the previous Mayor of Bogota would flip Colombia into some other authoritarian populist socialist state like neighboring Venezuela. “It borders on hysteria,” stated Shifter, however “it’s comprehensible as a result of … greater than another Latin American nation, the Venezuela tragedy and nightmare has impacted Colombia”, developing “terror … that they’re subsequent.”

Petro, 62, says the rustic wishes social justice to construct peace after a six-decade multi-faceted battle involving leftist rebels, the state, right-wing paramilitaries and drug cartels. “This is to mention much less poverty, much less starvation, much less inequality, extra rights. When you don’t do that, the violence proliferates,” he informed Caracol Radio on Friday.

Petro named environmentalist feminist Francia Marquez, 40, as his operating mate. That helped draw in younger citizens. Meleidy Perez, 21, who works for a charitable basis, informed AFP she is going to vote for Petro as a result of “he’s supporting us in what we younger folks need, which is originally alternatives.”

‘Discussion wanted’

Only some months in the past, Hernandez used to be a digital unknown outdoor the northern town of Bucaramanga, the place he used to be mayor from 2016-19. However his unconventional insurance policies and a sequence of gaffes, now not least when he apparently mistook Adolf Hitler for Albert Einstein in a radio interview, have stuck consideration. Simply this week a video used to be leaked of the 77-year-old taking part in a birthday party on a personal yacht in Miami along a number of scantily clad a lot more youthful girls. Even if he additionally named a girl, instructional Mirelen Castillo, 53, as his operating mate, he lately stated a girl’s position used to be in the house.

However it’s his loss of political revel in or a program that worries many. “As a businessman he’s used to resolving conflicts in a right away and fast manner, however the workout of governance calls for discussion, agreements, lengthy conferences to search out not unusual floor,” stated Munoz.

This is one thing he should do if elected given he has virtually no illustration in congress. “I’m direct, I talk the reality, I don’t calculate the results,” he informed Caracol TV on Friday. What has attracted citizens to Hernandez has been his anti-corruption stance-although he faces a graft investigation of his personal from his mayorship.

“Between robbery, luxurious and waste, one billion per week disappears, we will be able to put an finish to that from day one,” he vowed. Polls will open for Colombia’s 39 million citizens at 8:00 am (1300 GMT) and shut 8 hours later, with early effects anticipated a few hours after that. – AFP