What Santos victory means?
President Juan Manuel Santos of the Party of the U will remain in office following a tightly contested election against former finance minister, Oscar Ivan…
President Juan Manuel Santos, on screen at far right, celebrates winning the presidential runoff election, surrounded by his family at his campaign headquarters in Bogota, Colombia, Sunday, June 15, 2014. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)
President Juan Manuel Santos of the Party of the U will remain in office following a tightly contested election against former finance minister, Oscar Ivan Zuluaga of the Democratic Center Party. With approximately 99 percent of the votes counted, 50.9 percent of votes had been cast in the incumbents favor while 45 percent had been cast for his opponent.
SEE ALSO: Santos wins again in Colombia, marks victory for FARC negotiations
The Colombian presidents re-election seemed all but guaranteed several months ago as he embarked on his electoral campaign, but a rapid change of events eventually pitted him in a heated contest with his main challenger, Mr. Zuluaga.
Following a first round of voting in which neither candidate was able to carry a majority, the presidential election was prolonged as it led up to todays run-off vote.
olombia’s presidential candidate for the Democratic Center party, Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, speaks to supporters after loosing the presidential runoff to current President Juan Manuel Santos. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)
Leading up to Sundays vote, several opinion polls had given Mr. Zuluaga a miniscule lead of less than one percentage point. With such an indistinguishable margin separating both candidates, Sundays vote was a near toss-up.
Ultimately, President Santos seems to have been able to carry a recent wave of momentum to the polls as his supporters showed up to help him pull out the victory.
The keys to his victory rested on several fundamental factors, which played out in his favor; amongst these, the most significant were the recent political momentum which he carried to the polls and his ability to carry the votes of the former supporters of losing candidatesespecially left-leaning Clara Lopezwho publicly endorsed President Santos following their defeats in the first round of voting.
Furthermore, in a well-time moved, Santos camp announced earlier this week that peace negotiations between government member and militia members had now expanded to include Colombias second biggest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN).
The announcement was seen as positive step in the right direction as peace negotiations between government officials and militia members had been stalled as of late. The negotiationswhich had previously only involved Colombias largest guerrilla, the FARChave been at the forefront of the electoral cycle as President Santos and Mr. Zuluaga hold vastly different views as to their merits and stipulations.
While President Santos has consistently been the primary advocate of the negotiationswhich would grant militia members fuller participatory rights in the Colombian political system in exchange for giving up their military and drug-trafficking aimsMr. Zuluaga opposed the mediations on the ground that the FARC, and other militias, continue to be terrorist entities which should be dealt with as such.
With the victory, President Santos will seek to cement his legacy this upcoming four-year term by using the publics mandate to successfully finalize the negotiationseffectively ending Colombias decade-long civil warand continuing to promote the extended period of economic growth which he oversaw during his first term.
SEE ALSO: The FARC continues to be a preeminent issue in Colombian elections
