Gustavo Petro elected first leftist president in Colombia's history
Steph Deschamps / June 20, 2022
It is a historic vote: the opponent Gustavo Petro became Sunday the first president of the left in the history of Colombia, with 50.47% of the vote, according to official results based on 99% of counted ballots.
The government that will take office on August 7 will be the one of life, peace, social justice and environmental justice, said Gustavo Petro, alongside his family, relatives and his running mate, Afro-descendant Francia Marquez.
Today is a day of celebration for the people. Let him celebrate the first popular victory, celebrated on Twitter the senator and former guerrilla. His opponent, the millionaire Rodolfo Hernandez, obtained 47.27% of the vote, a difference of nearly 700,000 votes, said these results published by the National Registry, in charge of organizing the election. Today, the majority of citizens have chosen the other candidate. (...) I accept the result as it is, Hernandez said shortly afterwards in a Facebook live from his home. I wish Dr. Gustavo Petro that he knows how to lead the country and that he is faithful to his speech against corruption. Thank you very much to all Colombians for accepting my proposal, even if we lost he concluded, with a defeated face.I called @PetroGustavo to congratulate him as the elected president of the Colombian people, the outgoing conservative president, Ivan Duque, also announced on Twitter. We have agreed to meet in the coming days to begin a smooth, institutional and transparent transition he added.