(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Former defence minister Juan Manuel Santos is the early frontrunner in Colombia’s presidential race, according to a poll by Ipsos Napoleón Franco. 23 per cent of respondents would vote for Santos in this year’s ballot.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Former defence minister Juan Manuel Santos is the early frontrunner in Colombia’s presidential race, according to a poll by Ipsos Napoleón Franco. 23 per cent of respondents would vote for Santos in this year’s ballot.
Opposition leftist Democratic Pole (PD) member Gustavo Petro is second with 11 per cent, followed by Germán Vargas Lleras of Radical Change (CR) with nine per cent, former Medellín mayor Sergio Fajardo also with nine per cent, and Rafael Pardo of the Liberal Party (PL) with six per cent.
Álvaro Uribe has been Colombia’s president since August 2002. In the May 2006 election, he won a new four-year term with 62.2 per cent of all cast ballots. He was able to run again after pro-Uribe lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Constitutional Court officially sanctioned a plan to allow immediate presidential re-election. After issuing its ruling, the court warned that the clause was not valid for the unlimited re-election of the head of state.
A group of Uribe supporters gathered enough signatures to call a nationwide referendum on whether the current president should be allowed to run for re-election again this year. In September 2009, Congress approved the referendum bill in a late-night vote boycotted by members of the opposition. In February 2010, the Constitutional Court voted 7-2 against the referendum proposal. Immediately after the ruling, Santos confirmed that he would become a presidential candidate. Uribe said he "accepted" and "respected" the court’s decision.
Last month, Petro discussed his chances, saying, "Once the polarization that the Constitutional Court’s decision will generate is over, the people will be able to choose whether they want a policy of security without social equity, or security with an efficient social equity that takes us out of the war."
Colombia is scheduled to hold a legislative election on Mar. 14, and a presidential election on May 30.
Polling Data
Who would you vote for if the presidential election took place today?
|
Juan Manuel Santos
|
23%
|
|
Gustavo Petro (PD)
|
11%
|
|
Germán Vargas Lleras (CR)
|
9%
|
|
Sergio Fajardo
|
9%
|
|
Rafael Pardo (PL)
|
6%
|
|
Other / Undecided
|
42%
|
Source: Ipsos Napoleón Franco
Methodology: Face-to-face interviews with 1,000 Colombian adults, conducted on Feb. 27, 2010. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
