No longer driven by conflict, Colombians vote for president

For decades, Colombians voted with an eye on the bloody conflict with leftist rebels that dominated their country and politics.

But on Sunday they were casting their ballots in the first presidential election since the signing of a peace accord with the nation's biggest rebel group to end the conflict and were weighing issues like corruption, inequality, crime and relations with their crisis-plagued neighbor Venezuela.

The two leading candidates have presented dramatically different visions for both Colombia's economic model and the future of its divisive peace process in a polarizing campaign driven by a wave of anti-establishment sentiment.

Leading the polls is conservative former senator Ivan Duque, the protege of former President Alvaro Uribe, the leading critic of the peace deal, but surveys suggest he is unlikely to get the more than 50 percent of votes required to avoid a June runoff.

He's being chased by Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla and ex-Bogota mayor, whose rise has triggered business concerns he would push Colombia toward the left and rattle markets.

At least two other candidates trail within reach of obtaining the second spot and a place in any runoff.

"If he (Duque) wins, he has an opportunity to bridge some of these divides in Colombia," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue.. "But the big unknown is what Uribe's role will be."
That led to an outcry among his competitors and a rare intrusion in the campaign from outgoing President Juan Manuel Santos, who said "leftist extremists are the same as right-wing extremists: They invent frauds where they don't exist."
Aside from the economy, Petro and Duque differ on the peace accord, which has been slow to be implemented and remains controversial among many Colombians who believe it granted overly generous terms to demobilized guerrillas. Petro supports the accord while Duque has said it needs "correcting."