The political landscape in Colombia is being reshaped. The left-wing coalition made a historic breakthrough in Sunday’s legislative elections, according to partial official results published in the evening and covering more than 93% of the ballots counted.
The “Historic Pact”, the main opposition force to the outgoing Conservative government, won 17 seats in the Senate out of 102, where it led the vote with 14.52%, ahead of all the other traditional parties, Conservatives and Liberals.
Rout of the ruling party
In the Lower House of Representatives, the left-wing coalition led by Gustavo Petro obtained 25 MP seats out of 165, in second position behind the Liberal Party (32), but neck and neck with the Conservatives and with the largest number of votes, according to these same results. The “Democratic Center”, a right-wing party in power, which had obtained the largest number of votes in the Senate in the last legislative elections of 2018, suffered a heavy setback, finishing this time in fifth position, and in fourth position in the House of Representatives.
“The Historic Pact has obtained the best results of progressivism in the history of the Republic of Colombia”, hailed its leader, himself triumphantly designated the same day, at the end of nationwide primaries, as representative of the left in the presidential election on May 29. “We are on the verge of winning the presidency in the first round”, even predicted Gustavo Petro.