A survey by polling firm Datexco shows that more Colombians are concerned about unemployment and poverty than are concerned about national security, reports El Tiempo.
Pollsters were asked to indicate which social issues they were concerned about, selecting as many as they liked from the following list: unemployment, poverty, health, insecurity, health insurance, education, corruption, drug-trafficking, conflict and security.
Unemployment was revealed to be the most widely-held concern for Colombian people, with 61.1% of respondents saying they were worried about it.
This was followed by the issue of poverty, which 31.4% were concerned by, whilst 30% said they were concerned about health.
Meanwhile security was selected by 27.3% of respondents, and conflict was selected by 17.8%.
Of the social issues listed pollsters were least concerned about drug-trafficking, which only 5.5% selected as an issue of concern.
The poll also asked participants about their predictions for the upcoming elections and found that Partido de la U’s Juan Manuel Santos is considered the presidential candidate most likely to win the first round of elections.
When asked the question, “Which candidate do you think will pass into the second round?” the Partido de la U candidate came out on top gaining 57.3% of the votes, whilst Conservative party candidate Noemi Sanin got 49.7%.
Of those who intended to vote, 34.1% said they would vote for candidate Juan Manuel Santos, while 27.1% said they would choose Noemi Sanin.
In third place was Green Party candidate Antanas Mockus with 8.9% of votes, and in fourth place was Polo Democratico’s Gustavo Petro with 7.1%.
In last place was the former mayor of Medellin, Sergio Fajardo, with 4.4%.
The findings support those of polling company Gallup, which were published on Wednesday and showed Santos as the front-runner.
The poll involved 2,529 respondents from in 31 cities around Colombia, of whom 54.8% said they intend to vote in the presidential elections of May 30.
