Colombia Votes for New President
VOA News 30 May 2010
Colombians are voting to choose a successor to popular President Alvaro Uribe, who has served the maximum two terms.
Two of the six main presidential candidates listed on the ballot Sunday have emerged as front-runners, former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos and former Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus.
Santos was seen as Mr. Uribe's heir-apparent, but has faced an unlikely challenge from Mockus.
Mockus, a mathematician and philosopher, has surged in popularity, effectively using the Internet to spread his campaign message of "clean politics."
Santos, an economist, is from one of Colombia's most powerful families. As Mr. Uribe's defense minister, Santos oversaw the military campaign that largely drove the leftist FARC rebels into the hill and jungle regions.
However, Santos is also plagued by the murders of hundreds of civilians by soldiers who falsely claimed the killings as the deaths of guerrillas.
A June runoff between two is widely expected.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
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