Colombia - Elections - 2022
On 13 March 2022, Colombian voters had the opportunity to elect all members of Congress, comprising the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives. Voters also designated coalitions’ presidential candidates in internal party consultations. Colombia’s election management body made efforts to refine and improve the election process to increase the transparency and inclusivity of the 2022 Congressional elections. Across national media, these elections had been framed as an important check in establishing political controls on leadership for the creation of laws that benefit all citizens. This election would fill 108 seats in the Senate, 171 seats in the Chamber of Representatives and 16 seats for victims of armed conflict.
Colombia is a constitutional, multiparty republic. Presidential and legislative elections were held in 2018. Voters elected Ivan Duque Marquez president in a second round of elections that observers considered free and fair and the most peaceful in decades. There were approximately eight million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country, largely a result of the armed conflict and continuing violence in rural areas. Threats posed by illegal armed groups drove internal displacement in remote areas as well as urban settings. After the 2016 peace accord, FARC withdrawal resulted in a struggle for control by other illegal armed groups, causing violence and internal displacement.
The government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), formerly the country’s largest guerrilla insurgency group, continued to implement the 2016 peace accord. In 2017 the FARC completed its disarmament, and as of November 3, nearly 14,000 former members had begun reincorporation activities, including the formation of a political party. An estimated 800 to 1,500 FARC dissident members did not participate in the peace process from the outset. As of November FARC dissident numbers had grown to approximately 2,600 due to new recruitment and some former combatants who returned to arms.
Significant human rights issues included: reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings; reports of torture and arbitrary detention by government security forces and illegal armed groups; rape and abuse of women and children, as well as unlawful recruitment of child soldiers by illegal armed groups; criminalization of libel; widespread corruption; violence against and forced displacement of AfroColombian and indigenous persons; violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons; child labor; and killings and other violence against trade unionists.
Illegal armed groups, including dissidents of the FARC, National Liberation Army (ELN), and drug-trafficking gangs, continued to operate. Illegal armed groups, as well as narcotics traffickers, were significant perpetrators of human rights abuses and violent crimes and committed acts of extrajudicial and unlawful killings, extortion, and other abuses, such as kidnapping, torture, human trafficking, bombings, restriction on freedom of movement, sexual violence, recruitment and use of child soldiers, and threats of violence against journalists, women, and human rights defenders. Illegal armed groups, including the ELN, committed numerous unlawful or politically motivated killings, often in areas without a strong government presence.
Independent observers raised concerns that inadequate security guarantees facilitated the killing of former FARC militants. According to the UN Verification Mission, as of November 3, a total of 232 FARC former combatants had been killed since the signing of the 2016 peace accord.
The ELN, a leftist guerilla force of approximately 2,500 armed members, continued to commit crimes and acts of terror throughout the country, including bombings, violence against civilian populations, and violent attacks against military and police facilities. Illegal armed groups and drug gangs, such as the Gulf Clan, also continued to operate. The Colombia-Europe-United States Coordination Group and other NGOs, considered some of these illegal armed groups to be composed of former paramilitary groups. The government acknowledged that some former paramilitary members were active in illegal armed groups but noted these groups lacked the national, unified command structure and explicit ideological agenda that defined past paramilitary groups, including the disbanded United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.
Efforts continued to hold officials accountable in “false positive” extrajudicial killings, in which thousands of civilians were killed and falsely presented as guerrilla combatants in the late 1990s to early 2000s. As of June the Attorney General’s Office reported the government had convicted 1,740 members of the security forces in 270 cases related to false positive cases since 2008. Colombia celebrates its 211th anniversary of independence with an internal conflict more active than ever. In addition to the national strike that has been going on for more than two months, with 79 killed and 346 missing, the government of Iván Duque has not followed through on the Peace Agreements, signed in 2016 with the FARC-EP and since 2018 it had not participated in the process of dialogue with the National Liberation Army (ELN).
In the last four years more than a thousand social leaders and former combatants were killed, 60% of which occurred during the government of Duque. In 2021 alone, 50 massacres were registered and 28 ex-guerrillas were murdered, according to investigation by the Institute for the Development of Peace (Indepaz).
Colombians were extremely angry at the political establishment, at the increase in violence, with the electorate remaining deeply divided. What began as a strike against a tax proposal in May 2021 escalated into a nationwide protest movement over some of Colombia’s most deep-seated issues. Protesters are demanding structural changes to ease inequality and end police violence. After a month of demonstrations, President Ivan Duque’s popularity has hit record lows and protesters were staying out in the streets. The National Strike in April, May, and June reopened pending debates hailing back to the government’s “National Conversation” to address the claims of the protests in 2019 and, also, protests over police violence which happened in 2020.
The legislative elections would be arguably more significant than presidential elections, as they would determine the ability of the next administration to transform campaign rhetoric into concrete action. The current atmosphere of social discontent, the widespread calls for change, and the high disapproval of the current Congress and the political parties suggest a strong shakeup.
On 15 March 2022 Gustavo Petro, the front-runner for Colombia's May presidential election, secured the nomination of the left-wing Historic Pact coalition during voting in primaries. Centrist Sergio Fajardo and right-winger Federico Gutierrez, both former mayors of Colombia's second city Medellin, also secured nominations from their respective coalitions. Petro, a former guerrilla in the M-19 rebel group, and Gutierrez, a civil engineer, both polled well ahead of their coalition rivals.
In the Historic Pact primary, Petro won more than 80% - some 3.5 million votes - with around 80% of precincts reporting. Gutierrez won more than 54% - some 1.7 million ballots - in the primary for a coalition representing a sector of Colombia's right-wing, with about 80% counted. The contest for the centrist grouping was much closer. Fajardo, a mathematician, won just under 33% - or close to 590,000 votes - with 80% counted.
Incumbent President Ivan Duque's right-wing Democratic Center party has already selected Oscar Ivan Zuluaga as its presidential candidate. Petro lost to Duque - whose term ends in August - in the second round the 2018 presidential election.
May 29 would be the first round of the presidential elections and, if no candidate obtains more than half of the votes, there would be a second round on June 19. According to a mid-2021 survey by the Latin American Strategic Center for Geopolitics (CELAG), Senator Gustavo Petro was favored to win the presidency, with 30.3% of voter intention for the former M-19 guerrilla, followed by Sergio Fajardo, of Compromiso Ciudadano, with 14.7% and Juan Manuel Galán, of the Liberal Party, with 7.3%. Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, the bland presidential candidate handpicked by former President Uribe, did not register.
Petro would try to become the first leftist president in Colombia’s history. But his win isn’t assured, given that he’s also the candidate with the highest disapproval rating, and a November 2021 poll showed him losing a runoff facing either former Mayor of Medellín Sergio Fajardo or ex-Senator Juan Manuel Galán.
Meanwhile, the rejection rate of Iván Duque has reached 76%. Iván Duque, the candidate of former President Álvaro Uribe, turned out badly because four years later, discontent with Uribe is much greater. Uribe and his powerful clique are afraid of being defeated at the polls and of losing power and their privileges. There are plenty of reasons why they are so scared. After almost 16 years in power, Uribe, the indefatigable former president, the one who resisted everything without affecting his popularity, has run out of Teflon. His disapproval, according to a latest Gallup poll, is nearly 70%.
George Holan, chief editor at Plainsmen Post, wrote Uribismo "... controls the police and the Army, two institutions that have become the center of its proselytism and that are politicized to the core; It also has the support of the mafia clans in the regions, which are the ones that always define the elections for president because they are the ones who buy the votes....
"Uribismo is not only a political party made in the image and likeness of its undisputed leader, former President Uribe. It is also a way of thinking about Colombia that is increasingly inspired by the populism of Donald Trump and that brings together a powerful right-wing coalition that has been radicalized over time by the hand of corruption and regional mafias that have captured the state with its cliques.
" Duque has been an unpopular leader since the start of his administration with chronic disapproval. He was never able to connect with the real country and his interlocutors were always the big businessmen and bankers, whom he generously favored in the pandemic. He did not realize that this abject defense of privilege in a democracy with one of the highest inequality rates in the world was an affront..."
Gustavo Petro, a leftist former mayor of Bogota who is currently ahead in the polls, has tapped into widespread frustration with corruption and economic inequalities that have soared during the coronavirus pandemic. Petro is a notorious opponent of the Government since he lost the second round of the presidential elections against Duque in 2018. Petro lost in the second round against President Duque, although he obtained more than eight million votes (43%). He’s practically been campaigning ever since. In a country with conservative tendencies in which the left has never reached the Casa de Nariño, the favorite in the polls knows his strengths and his limitations. His figure still arouses fears in an important part of the population. Petro belonged to the M-19 decades ago, a guerrilla group that demobilized and played a leading role in the process of the 1991 Constitution. Later he has been a senator, mayor of Bogotá and a fierce critic of former President Álvaro Uribe, Duque’s political mentor.
Among a score of pre-candidates, Petro leads by far all the polls in the crowded presidential race. No observer doubts that he would win the referendum on the Historical Pact in March, a kind of internal election in a diverse coalition tailored to his needs that includes the Patriotic Union, the Democratic Pole and Human Colombia, among other movements and parties. Petro described his future government as “a government of many transitions”, focused on four aspects if the polls give him victory: from an economy based on extraction from oil and coal to a sustainable economy, from authoritarian rule to democracy, from violence to peace and from injustice to justice.
Ingrid Betancourt, a Colombian politician who was kidnapped and held hostage for six years by an armed rebel group, launched a fresh bid for the presidency on 18 January 2022. The announcement comes almost two decades after the former congresswoman was kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2002 while campaigning for Colombia’s top office. The leader of the Oxygen Green Party, Betancourt told reporters on Tuesday that she would vie to become the nominee to represent centrist parties in the race. If she wins the nomination, she would contest the first-round presidential election on May 29.While announcing her run for the presidency, Betancourt said she would fight to end impunity for corrupt politicians while addressing economic disparities that have long afflicted Colombia.
The early vote count in the six-way presidential election in Colombia pointed toward a run-off in June, with leftist former rebel Gustavo Petro leading in a ballot held amid growing discontent over increasing inequality and inflation. Petro, a senator and front-runner throughout the campaign, had just over 40% of votes and was trailed by populist businessman Rodolfo Hernández, who had almost 28%, with more than 94% of ballots tallied, election authorities said 29 May 2022.
Petro needed 50% of the total votes to avoid a run-off election against the second-place finisher. The anti-establishment candidate has promised to make significant adjustments to the economy, including a tax reform, and to change how Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed groups. A Petro win would add to a series of leftist political victories in Latin America as people seek change at a time of dissatisfaction with the economic situation. Chile, Peru and Honduras elected leftist presidents in 2021, and in Brazil, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is leading the polls for this year’s presidential election. Mexico elected a leftist president in 2018.
This was the second presidential election held since the government signed in 2016 a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC for its initials in Spanish. But the divisive agreement was not a main issue during the campaign as challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, including poverty and inflation, garnered attention.
The candidate of the left-wing Historical Pact coalition, Senator Gustavo Petro , won the Colombian presidential election. As a result of the vote, Petro received 50.51% of the vote, while his rival Rodolfo Hernandez - 47.22%. "Today is a holiday for the people. Let them celebrate the first people's victory. Let so much suffering soften the joy that fills the heart of the motherland today," Petro wrote on social networks after the results of the vote count were announced.
Petro pledged to fight inequality with free university education, pension reforms and high taxes on unproductive land. His proposals – including a ban on new oil projects – have startled some investors, though he has promised to respect current contracts. This campaign was Petro’s third presidential bid and his victory adds the Andean nation to a list of Latin American countries that have elected progressives in recent years. Petro’s running mate Francia Marquez, a single mother and former housekeeper, would be the country’s first Afro-Colombian female vice president.
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