Progressive candidates are dominating the top of a presidential poll that was released on Thursday. But former President Alvaro Uribe, an important electoral baron, still has to announce his endorsement.
The candidate with most votes in the poll was Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla who was mayor of the capital Bogota between 2012 and 2015.
Seventeen percent of the 1,800 interviewed Colombians said they supported the outspoken social democrat who has frequently clashed with hard-line conservatives.
Second is Antioquia’s former “anti-corruption” Governor Sergio Fajardo with 15%, followed by former VP German Vargas with 14%.
Some 14% of the urban dwellers polled by Cifras y Conceptos said they did not know who to vote for.
Intentional votes
- Gustavo Petro: 17%
- Sergio Fajardo: 15%
- Germán Vargas: 14%
- Humberto de la Calle: 10%
- Claudia López: 7%
- Clara López: 5%
- Jorge Robledo: 3%
- Alejandro Ordóñez: 2%
- Iván Duque: 2%
- Carlos Caicedo: 2%
- Carlos Holmes Trujillo: 2%
- Marta Lucía Ramírez: 2%
With the exception of Vargas, the first seven candidates are considered either center or left.
The former VP has been campaigning for months and reportedly has an agreement with former President Alvaro Uribe whose endorsement could help him consolidate the conservative vote in the second round.
Uribe’s hard-right opposition party, the Democratic Center, would be announcing the first round candidate before the electoral deadline in December.
Vargas and Petro are both hindered by a high disapproval rating following their turns in office, which could impede the consolidation of electoral support.
Fajardo, who has avoided controversy, is the only candidate with an approval rating that is higher than the disapproval.
Colombia’s electorate has been divided and polarized by on ongoing peace process between the state and the Marxist FARC guerrilla group.
Decades of corruption has diminished public faith to politics to its lowest level in a decade.
The biggest challenges for the incoming president will be the ongoing peace process with the FARC and the reactivation of the economy, which has slumped after oil prices dropped in 2014.
