2022 Colombian Presidential Election

Presidential elections will be held in Colombia on 29 May 2022. If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, a second round of voting will be held on 19 June. Incumbent President Iván Duque is ineligible for a second term.

Electoral system

Colombian presidents are elected for four-year terms using a two-round system; if no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round, a runoff is held between the top two candidates. The Vice President is elected on the same ticket as the President. Presidents are limited to a single four-year term and Article 191 of the constitution requires candidates to be Colombian by birth and at least thirty years old.

In line with the constitution, Colombian citizens by birth or by naturalization, aged eighteen or older have the right to vote. Several scenarios can cause the loss of the right to vote, as outlined in the constitution. Citizens in detention centers can vote from the establishments determined by the National Civil Registry. The civil registry inscription is not automatic, and citizens must go to the regional office of the Registry to register.

Legislative Act No. 2 of 2015 established that the runner-up in the presidential elections is given a seat in the Senate and their vice president candidate will become a member of the House of Representatives.

Registration of candidates

In order to be accepted as a candidate, applicants must either have the backing of a recognized political party in order to run as their official candidate, or to collect a minimum number of signatures in order to run as an independent candidate. The National Registry confirmed that the minimum number of signatures required was 580,620, equivalent to 3% of the total valid vote in the 2018 Colombian presidential election, and that they had to be delivered to the registry by 17 December 2021. On 17 December, the National Registry confirmed that seven pre-candidates had delivered the necessary number of signatures: Alejandro Char, Rodolfo Hernández, Federico Gutiérrez, Alejandro Gaviria, Luis Pérez, Roy Barreras and Juan Carlos Echeverry. Of these seven pre-candidates, Char, Gutiérrez and Gaviria accepted the endorsements of political parties, thereby bypassing the necessity to run as independents, while Barreras and Echeverry later decided to drop out of the presidential race. This left Hernández and Pérez as the only independent candidates in the race.

Candidates

Summary of candidates

The following candidates registered with the National Registrar of Civil Status and will appear on the ballot of the first round.

Historic Pact for Colombia

The Historic Pact for Colombia (Spanish: ''Pacto Histórico por Colombia'') is a coalition of left-wing, progressive and indigenous politicians. Five pre-candidates representing six political parties or movements announced that they would be standing for election as the unified presidential candidate for the coalition. The candidate was chosen by public vote on 13 March 2022.

The candidates were:
* Gustavo Petro, senator, former mayor of Bogota, and runner-up in the 2018 Colombian presidential election ( Humane Colombia; Patriotic Union)
* Francia Márquez, Afro-Colombian human-rights and environmental activist (Alternative Democratic Pole)
* Camilo Romero, former governor of Nariño (Greens for Change)
* Arelis Uriana, Wayuu community leader ( Indigenous and Social Alternative Movement)
* Alfredo Saade (Full Democratic Alliance)

Gustavo Petro was announced as the winner of the public vote and will be the candidate of the Historic Pact for Colombia coalition in the presidential election.

Hope Center Coalition

The Hope Center Coalition (Spanish: ''Coalición Centro Esperanza''), formerly known as the Coalition of Hope (Spanish: ''Coalición de la Esperanza'') until 28 November 2021, is a coalition of centre and centre-left politicians. Five pre-candidates announced that they would be standing for election as the unified presidential candidate for the coalition. The candidate was chosen by public vote on 13 March 2022.

The candidates were:
* Juan Manuel Galán, former senator ( New Liberalism)
* Sergio Fajardo, former mayor of Medellín ( Independent Social Alliance)
* Jorge Enrique Robledo, senator (Dignity)
* Carlos Amaya, former governor of Boyacá (We Are Green Hope)
* Alejandro Gaviria, former Minister of Health and Social Protection (Colombia Has a Future)

Sergio Fajardo was announced as the winner of the public vote and will be the candidate of the Hope Center Coalition in the presidential election.

Team for Colombia Coalition

The Team for Colombia Coalition (Spanish: ''Coalición Equipo por Colombia'') is a coalition of centre-right and right-wing politicians. Five pre-candidates announced that they would be standing for election as the unified presidential candidate for the coalition. The candidate was chosen by public vote on 13 March 2022.

The candidates were:
* Aydeé Lizarazo (Independent Movement of Absolute Renovation)
* Alejandro Char, former mayor of Barranquilla (Land of Opportunities)
* David Barguil, senator (Colombian Conservative Party)
* Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogota ( Party of the U)
* Federico Gutiérrez, former mayor of Medellín (We Believe Colombia)

Federico Gutiérrez was announced as the winner of the public vote and will be the candidate of the Team for Colombia Coalition in the presidential election.

Other candidates

* Íngrid Betancourt, former senator (Oxygen Green Party). Betancourt announced her candidacy on 18 January 2022 and originally joined the Hope Center Coalition. However, following a dispute with fellow coalition pre-candidate Alejandro Gaviria, Betancourt announced on 29 January that she was leaving the coalition and would run as an independent candidate under her own Oxygen Green (Spanish: ''Verde Oxígeno'') party.
* Rodolfo Hernández, former mayor of Bucaramanga (League of Anti-Corruption Governors). Hernández announced on 29 June 2021 that he would run as an independent candidate. On 13 December 2021, Hernández announced that he had delivered nearly 1.9 million signatures to the National Registry in support of his candidacy.
* Luis Pérez, former mayor of Medellín and former governor of Antioquia (Colombia Think Big). Pérez announced on 26 February 2021 that he would be running for the presidency as an independent candidate. On 15 December 2021, it was confirmed that Pérez had received the necessary number of signatures to be officially declared as a candidate.
* John Milton Rodríguez, senator (Just and Free Colombia). Rodríguez was chosen as the candidate of the evangelical Christian party Just and Free Colombia (Spanish: ''Colombia Justa Libres'') at the party's national convention in November 2021, obtaining 75% of the delegates' votes.
* Enrique Gómez Martínez (National Salvation Movement). On 1 November 2021, Gómez Martínez announced that he was relaunching the conservative National Salvation Movement (Spanish: ''Movimiento Salvación Nacional'') that had been founded by his late uncle Álvaro Gómez Hurtado. On 1 December 2021, the National Registry accepted the return of the National Salvation Movement as a political party, and Gómez Martínez became the party's presidential candidate.

Withdrew

* Óscar Iván Zuluaga, former Minister of Finance and Public Credit and runner-up in the 2014 Colombian presidential election ( Democratic Center). It was announced that the candidate for the centre-right Democratic Center party would be chosen via two polls conducted internally during November 2021. The polls were conducted by the two polling agencies Centro Nacional de Consultoría (CNC) and YanHass via telephone, and polled 2,100 party members (comprising 25% of the final weighting) and 2,100 members of the public (comprising the remaining 75% weighting). In both polls Zuluaga emerged comfortably as the preferred candidate, winning 53% of the vote in the CNC poll and 52% of the vote in the YanHass poll, and he was announced as the Democratic Center's candidate on 22 November 2021. He beat four other pre-candidates: María Fernanda Cabal (23% and 27% in the CNC and YanHass polls, respectively), Paloma Valencia (11% and 9%), Alirio Barrera (8% and 7%), and Rafael Nieto Loiaza (5% and 5%). The result of the vote caused controversy, with Cabal in particular disputing the results of the polls and accusing current president Iván Duque (also of the Democratic Center party) of interfering with the voting process to ensure that Zuluaga would win. Following his victory, Zuluaga was invited to join the Team for Colombia Coalition, but he originally declined the invitation. However, following Federico Gutiérrez's nomination as the Team for Colombia candidate, Zuluaga withdrew his candidacy and stated that he would support Gutiérrez's campaign.
* Luis Gilberto Murillo, former governor of Chocó and former Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development (Colombia Reborn). Murillo had been expected to be a pre-candidate for the Hope Center Coalition, but on 21 January 2022 he announced that he would run independently as the candidate for the Colombia Reborn (Spanish: ''Colombia Renaciente'') party. He later stated that he had not felt welcome within the Hope Center Coalition. However, on 17 March he announced he would suspend his presidential bid to become the vice presidential nominee of the Hope Center Coalition.

Campaign

The economist and former mayor of Bogotá, Gustavo Petro, previously a candidate in the 2018 presidential election, is leading some opinion polls and could become the first president of Colombia from a left-wing coalition. His political party, Humane Colombia, has promoted the creation of the Historic Pact for Colombia coalition, which includes social movements, socialist, environmental and feminist associations. The ideological diversity of the coalition is seen as a source of internal tension. Petro has been trying to win over more of the middle class during his campaign, which has led him to moderate his economic program and his criticism of the private sector, while trying to distance himself from Venezuela, which he previously supported. He is critical of Colombia's neoliberal economic system and its reliance on oil and gas. He advocates progressive proposals on women's rights and LGBTQ issues, and supports a peace agreement between the state and the guerrillas.

The centrist coalition, made up of significant figures ranging from the center-left to the center-right, is placed as second most voted in some opinion polls. The coalition is seen as having strong support among the upper socio-economic strata in the big cities.

Debates

Opinion polls

First round

Polls after finalisation of candidates

Polls before finalisation of candidates

Results

See also

*2022 Colombian parliamentary election

References

{{Colombian elections, state=collapsed

Presidential elections in Colombia
Colombia
2022 in Colombia