Candidates vote in the second round of the Colombian presidential elections

The candidates for the Presidency of Colombia Iván Cepeda and Abelardo de la Espriella have already voted in the second round of the presidential elections being held this Sunday with calls for mobilization.

Cepeda, a left-wing presidential candidate, has highlighted that his team’s campaign has been “exemplary, transparent and clean.” In addition, he has called for electoral peace from his voting center, the San Lucas de Kennedy School, in Bogotá. “Let democracy triumph. Let’s go for life,” he stressed.

“It is a source of pride to culminate today this long, prolonged electoral day. We have carried out a clean, transparent, honest campaign, in which we have presented to the general public our ideas, our program, our principles and our path and destiny for Colombia in the coming years,” he declared.

In addition, he has announced that his party, Historical Pact, is going to deploy a “surveillance network” with electoral witnesses. “A very large participation of electoral witnesses, lawyers from the Historical Pact and the Alliance for Life has been deployed so that we can exercise our right to verify the results of the pre-count and scrutiny,” he explained.

APPEAL TO “FERVOR” TO “CHANGE THE ALWAYS POLICY”

Cepeda’s rival, De la Espriella, has also already voted, who has assured that his objective is to “change politics forever”, for which he has appealed to the “fervor” of the population.

The candidate of the Defenders of the Homeland movement has highlighted the importance of the vote. “Today is the most important game in the history of Colombia because today we are risking our freedom and the future of our children,” he stressed.

He has also charged against his rival, Cepeda. “José Manuel and I represent freedom, democracy, institutionality. Cepeda represents tyranny and we have to defeat him today with the fervor of the Colombian people,” he declared.

The outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, has also already voted, who has called on his compatriots to “go out and vote no matter what” because “all the guarantees exist” to exercise this right. Likewise, he has asked to “overcome territorial difficulties” that may represent an obstacle to casting his vote.

Later, in an appearance with his daughters, Petro announced that he does not believe he will be a “candidate for anything” again, although he has warned that he will not give up his political vocation. “I don’t think I will be a candidate again in any election, this is the last one I will take part here as head of state. (…), I will not be a tired old man, here bothering the Colombians who deserve a new era, hopefully democratic, free and fair,” he noted.

Meanwhile, former president Álvaro Uribe has defended his vote for De la Espriella and has warned that “on the one hand we have the possibility of a country with democratic freedoms and social well-being and on the other hand, the consolidation of the Chavista branch in Colombia.”

The also right-wing Iván Duque has indicated that beyond the contest between left and right, it is “an electoral battle over those who want the continuity of impunity, those who want to continue seeing the destruction of health and the opposite.” “It is about defending our Constitution against those who want to tamper with it, weaken it,” he said in reference to the constitutional reform initiatives.

For former president Andrés Pastrana “it does not matter that President Gustavo Petro does not recognize the elections, something that is very certain to happen.” “We are going to have a President who is not going to recognize the result, who is not going to recognize defeat. Whoever wins, wins. We do not care if Petro agrees or disagrees,” he stressed.

This Sunday, Cepeda and De la Espriella are competing for the Presidency in the second round after both were the candidates with the most votes in the first electoral round, held on May 31. De la Espriella was the candidate with the most votes with 43.74% of votes compared to 40.9% for Cepeda.