By Orlando Oramas Leon

Presidential and Vice-Presidential candi-
dates Gustavo Petro and Francia Marquez

The Historic Pact, which gathers a good part of the Colombian left wing, emerged Sunday as the most voted political force in the legislative elections in the South American country, where Uribismo was relegated to fifth place as a result of the social dissatisfaction with its government policies.

The challenge at the polls meant a historic moment for the coalition that will carry congressman and former guerrilla Gustavo Petro as its presidential candidate.

The Historical Pact obtained 2,246,024 votes for its closed list for the Senate, where it will occupy 17 seats. In the vote for the House of Representatives, it filed two million 475 thousand 953 ballots for its different lists, thus securing 25 seats with 95.98 percent of the tables counted.

Suffice it to compare these figures with those achieved by the left in previous elections, when the Polo Democrático and the List of Decency movements received 1.2 million votes for the Senate, and 815 thousand 381 for the House of Representatives.

The numbers also speak to the defeat of the party that represents the positions of former President Álvaro Uribe, and of the government of Iván Duque. Centro Democrático went from being the political grouping with the largest representation in the Senate (19) to sinking to fifth place with only 14 positions.

In the House it was worse. Uribismo lost 17 positions, going from 32 representatives to 15. The plummeting fall was from 1.8 million ballots four years ago to almost 700 thousand less this time, which confirms the bill passed after the popular protests of a year ago that put in check the neoliberal policies of the Duque administration.

Although the right wing resented the loss of voters, it will retain, although fragmented, a majority in the Senate where the traditional Conservative and Liberal parties won 15 seats each, the Democratic Center 14, Radical Change 11, the U Party 10 and the Mira-Colombia Justa Libre Coalition 4.

The Historical Pact will have to juggle in Congress with the Green Alliance Coalition and the Hope Center in order to put a stop to the right-wing attempts.

With a view to the May 29 presidential elections, Gustavo Petro was the great winner in Sunday’s elections, since he won the nomination of the Historical Pact and pushed the advance of this grouping and the punishment of the right-wing formations.

“The Historic Pact has achieved the best result of progressivism in the history of the Republic of Colombia”, he said surrounded by his supporters when celebrating the triumph.

The leftist forces conquered at least 41 seats in both chambers, more than three times more than in the last legislative elections and above the 17 they obtained in 2006, date that marked their best record.

The Pact could add in Congress the support of Comunes, the political expression of the former FARC, which although it did not have good results in the elections, has 10 seats reserved in Congress as part of the peace agreements.

In the dispute for the presidency of the Republic Petro will face the former mayor of Medellín, Federico Gutiérrez,  of the extreme right-wing coalition Equipo por Colombia. He will also face former governor Sergio Fajardo, who proclaimed himself as presidential candidate for Centro Esperanza.

There will also be Óscar Iván Zuluaga, for the ruling Democratic Center, the independent Rodolfo Hernández and Íngrid Betancourt, who did not go to the primaries and are competing on their own.

From now on, Gustavo Petro will be in the spotlight of the Colombian right-wing, particularly his attachment to the integral implementation of the Peace Accords, and his commitment to face the abysmal social and economic inequalities prevailing in his country.

Before that, the hundreds of complaints regarding irregularities in Sunday’s elections, the same ones that contributed in the past to deny spaces to excluded sectors, must be clarified.

                 Source: Cuba en Resumen,3/14/22