The president of the Colombian Congress, Juan Diego Gómez, reported that he has received information that would confirm that in the coming days the opposition leader and presidential candidate for the Historical Pact, Gustavo Petro, would resign from his seat in the Senate of the Republic.
The Senator of the Conservative Party confirmed to the national media Semana that rumors of the resignation of the candidate for the presidency of Colombia, who leads the polls for intent to vote and is currently touring with his vice-presidential formula, environmentalist Francia Márquez, has reached his office for the four municipalities bordering the national territory.
“No, no office has arrived yet, they have announced to me that it will probably be presented in the next few days or weeks, but it has not yet arrived,” the parliamentarian told the media, clarifying that, if Gustavo Petro was still in Congress, he should comply with the regulations that established the mandatory nature of the attendance at the debates. Failure to comply with this requirement would lead to disciplinary action in the Office of the Attorney General.
It should be emphasized that these resignations have already been submitted by other senators who took office. In 2018, Iván Duque applied to withdraw from office on April 10 and run for the campaign that took him to the Nariño Palace. However, unlike Duque, Petro would not be replaced, as his seat in the Senate was handed over personally by the Opposition Statute, not in the name of a party.
The presidential candidate, who in the most recent poll conducted by the National Consultancy Center for Week achieved a vote intention of 36.5 per cent, visited the municipality of Puerto Carreño, Vichada, in the far eastern part of Colombia, where he was accompanied by a large number of citizens hours before embarking on his trip to the southern border of the country.
“Leticia will be one of the world capitals of life, the center of Amazonian knowledge and the central stage for the recovery of the Amazon rainforest for the sustainability of humanity,” said Gustavo Petro from the capital of the department of Amazonas, where he advances his journey through the four cardinal points, in the middle of his campaign which overlaps its functions in the legislature.
On May 29, Colombians will be able to exercise their right to vote and choose who will be the next president of the country for the next four years. Two candidates appear as the great electoral opponents to win, Gustavo Petro from the Historic Pact and Federico Gutiérrez of Team for Colombia, who in recent weeks have topped the poll lists in recent weeks. Although the left-wing candidate and senator has a superior margin, it would not be enough to prevail in the first round.
According to the most recent poll conducted by the National Consultancy Center for Semana, elections would be defined in the second round, a scenario in which, although Gustavo Petro leads the voting intention, Federico Gutiérrez would manage to be only three points apart, equivalent to around 315,000 votes. The upcoming presidential elections could, according to polls and studies, be the tightest in the country's history.
According to the media survey, in the first round Gustavo Petro would have 36.5% of the citizens' intention to vote, while Federico Gutiérrez would achieve 24.5%. Although the margin between the two candidates is wide and the Historic Pact candidate has managed to increase the numbers (from 32.1% to 36.5%), it would not be enough to win in the May 29 elections, where he would need 50% plus one vote.
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