By Julia Symmes Cobb, Nelson Bocanegra and Luis Jaime Acosta<\/p>\n
BOGOTA, June 1 (Reuters) –<\/p>\n
Right-wing Colombian lawyer Abelardo De La Espriella and leftist senator Ivan Cepeda will compete in a June presidential runoff after a tight vote on Sunday, in a contest dominated by \u200cvoter concerns over security and the economy to which each candidate has offered populist solutions.<\/p>\n
The two men were close in vote tallies, with \u200cDe La Espriella, who has never held elected office, notching nearly 44% support and Cepeda, a long-time senator and activist, just under 41%.<\/p>\n
De La Espriella’s personal style and policy proposals – including \u200ba tough offensive against illegal armed groups and the construction of 10 megaprisons – have drawn comparisons to El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am ready to fight the final battle, I am ready for a second round in which this miraculous homeland and its supporters will prevail,” he said Sunday evening from a stage set up on a large boat pulled up on the Magdalena River in Barranquilla, where he maintains a residence. “Today we have closed the first page of history, but \u200cthe definitive history we will finish writing on June \u206021.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 47-year-old, his wife and four young children also have homes in Miami and Italy.<\/p>\n
De La Espriella has proposed poverty reduction through better education, healthcare and housing for the poorest.<\/p>\n
The lawyer says he is free from political baggage and has \u2060financed his own campaign, without receiving donations from parties or large companies. Reuters could not independently verify that claim.<\/p>\n
LEFTIST CLOSE BEHIND<\/p>\n
Cepeda, a 63-year-old lawmaker and son of a murdered communist leader, had led some opinion polls ahead of the first round, but surveys have suggested he will face a much tougher contest now that right-leaning voters no longer \u200bhave \u200bmultiple options. Centrist candidates notched single-digit support.<\/p>\n
Both Cepeda and Petro said there were possible \u200birregularities and that they would wait for all votes to \u200cbe confirmed by judges. By late on Sunday evening nearly half of ballot box tallies had been formally reviewed.<\/p>\n
The two candidates inveighed against one another in their comments on Sunday night, with De La Espriella referring to Cepeda as Petro’s puppet, while Cepeda called his rival a “mafia fascist” and critiqued his history as a lawyer.<\/p>\n
De La Espriella, who has legally represented controversial figures including former Venezuelan minister Alex Saab, has warned Cepeda would ensure the continuation of Petro\u2019s economic policies, including a ban on new oil projects, which have been much criticized by establishment politicians and investors.<\/p>\n
Cepeda, who participated in talks that produced \u200ca 2016 peace deal between the government and former FARC guerrillas, has promised to pursue \u200bpeace with other armed groups to end the country’s six-decade internal conflict, an effort that \u200bhas led to little progress under Petro.<\/p>\n
He also plans to deepen \u200breforms meant to reduce inequality and poverty, including by raising taxes on high earners, gifting 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) \u200cto conflict victims and expanding income support for the elderly, poor \u200bfamilies and young people.<\/p>\n
“We will step up \u200ball our efforts starting tonight to gather and unite the forces needed to defeat Abelardo De La Espriella with a clear electoral verification,” Cepeda told supporters.<\/p>\n
Low turnout at Sunday’s vote may give the candidates room to maneuver if they can convince more supporters to vote in \u200bthe runoff on June 21. Some 58% of 41 \u200cmillion eligible voters cast ballots, figures from the registry office showed.<\/p>\n
Paloma Valencia, a senator backed by former President Alvaro Uribe, had until \u200brecently been the leading right-wing candidate in the race, but she notched under 7% of votes.<\/p>\n
She has thrown her support behind De \u200bLa Espriella, as has Uribe.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Julia Symmes Cobb, Nelson Bocanegra and Luis Jaime Acosta BOGOTA, June 1 (Reuters) – Right-wing Colombian lawyer…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":836683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[342955,1582,276,342957,342638,2961,342956,224,5337],"class_list":["post-836682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-abelardo-de-la-espriella","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-cepeda","tag-ivan-cepeda","tag-la","tag-la-espriella","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116674619860420484","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}