AFP, BOGOTA
Colombians on Sunday vote in a presidential runoff pitting a hard-right opera-singer-turned-lawyer against a leftist senator, an election with stark consequences for the country’s stumbling peace process with armed groups and strained ties with Washington. Up to 41 million voters are to choose between Abelardo de la Espriella and Ivan Cepeda — deciding whether the country would see four more years of leftist rule or veer sharply to the right. The two candidates offer starkly different visions for security, cocaine trafficking and how to tackle the worst violence Colombia has seen in a decade. The election campaign was marred by bomb attacks across the south of the country, explosive drone attacks, and the murder of a leading presidential candidate in Bogota.
Colombian presidential candidates Abelardo de la Espriella, left, and Ivan Cepeda are pictured in a composite photograph.
“All I ask is that the incoming president crack down hard,” voter and retired soldier Ariel Jamaica, 48, said. “There is too much insecurity.” De la Espriella, who calls himself “The Tiger,” won last month’s first-round vote promising to wage war on drug-running guerrilla groups who refused to sign a 2016 peace deal.
