Colombia’s National Registry says it is fully prepared for Sunday’s runoff presidential election between Partido de la U’s Juan Manuel Santos and the Green Party’s Antanas Mockus, and that the world will know the outcome by 5:30PM.
“The results from May 30 [the first-round presidential election] has generated a lot of expectations. We think that we will follow the times from that day, meaning that it is possible that between 5:15 and 5:30 in the afternoon, we will have 95% of the results,” an official from the National Registry announced on Saturday.
On May 30, Colombians knew the outcome of the country’s first round presidential election in record time, with 95% of results published just an hour and a half after polling stations closed.
National Registrar Carlos Ariel Sanchez claimed that the election represented a success for the Registry Office, attributing the speed of the results to forward planning by the office and co-operation between voting officials and the armed forces.
Colombia’s Interior Ministry also announced on Saturday that the 350,000 soldiers and police officers assigned to provide security to the nation’s polling stations can guarantee the country a peaceful election day.
“The armed forces and the police are very well stationed at all of the key sites [around the country] and ready to repel any terrorist action,” Interior Ministry Fabio Valencia said.
The June 20 runoff election between Santos, who gained 46.57% of the vote in the first round, and Mockus, who won 21.47%, will open at 8 AM, and run until 4 PM.
The latest voter poll from last week showed 65% of the respondents plan to vote for Santos and 28% for Mockus.
