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Bloomberg
Colombians are voting in the runoff of the first presidential election since the demobilisation of the nation’s largest guerrilla group, with a market-friendly lawyer facing a leftist who wants to tax the rich.
Polls predict a clear win for Ivan Duque, 41, who wants to cut taxes on company profits, over Gustavo Petro, 58, who wants to redistribute land and promote solar energy. The nation’s 36 million registered voters cast ballots from 8 am to 4 pm local time, with most results were expected soon after 5 pm.
The winner will take office in August and inherit a sluggish economy, a migration crisis from neighbouring Venezuela and a surge in cocaine production which has brought chaos to parts of the countryside. Despite this, the nation is the most peaceful it has been in decades, with a presidential campaign season free of the terror and sabotage that marred past votes. “These elections are so important precisely because they are the first for a society that is coming out of 54 years of war,†said Ariel Avila, a political analyst at the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation in Bogota.