Elections in Colombia: Rodolfo Hernández wins in the department that he did not even know existed

The independent populist candidate Rodolfo Hernandezwho will dispute the Presidency of Colombia in the second round with the leftist Gustavo Petro on June 19, was the most voted in the department of Vichada, in Orinoquía, whose existence I did not even know until three months ago.

With 98.17% of the polling stations informed in that department, the former mayor of Bucaramanga, the big surprise of the day by leaving right-wing Federico Gutiérrez out of the second round, obtained 6,586 votes, equivalent to 39.77%, while that Petro received 5,472 votes (33.04%).

Look: LIVE | Presidential elections in Colombia 2022: When will the second round between Petro and Hernández be?

In the national total, with 99.62% counted, Petro obtained 8,512,519 ballots, equivalent to 40.33%, followed by Hernández with 5,948,162 votes, representing 28.18%.

Last February, a citizen approached Hernández and asked him to send a message to Vichada, a jungle department that is the second largest in the country, to which the candidate replied: “For Vichada…what is that? ”.

Next, he asked his interlocutor what the departmental capital was (Puerto Carreño), and he sent a greeting to its inhabitants, which caused outrage on social networks where they criticized him for ignoring the country he seeks to govern.

“Nobody fights for what they don’t love and nobody loves what they don’t know. That is why we launched our campaign in Vichada, a department that is part of forgotten Colombia,” said former Boyacá governor Carlos Amaya, who was a presidential candidate for the Centro Esperanza Coalition and today sounds like one of the politicians who can support the campaign of Hernandez.

Sandra Ramírez, senator of the Comunes party, which emerged from the demobilization of the FARC, lamented that the presidential candidate was unaware of that region and that, even so, “he wants them to vote for him and give him the checkbook.”

The latest polls gave engineer Hernández, 77 years old and candidate of the League of Anti-Corruption Governors, third place, but his vote exceeded all forecasts and he will see Petro in the ballot in three weeks.

Source: Elcomercio

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