Santos Wins Columbia’s Presidential Polls

Jaun Manuel Santos, conservative candidate, has registered a massive victory in Colombia’s presidential elections, said media reports.

So far nearly 60% vote has been counted and Manuel has received 69% of the vote against fellow finalist Antanas Mockus, a former Bogota mayor, who has been a huge underdog in the second-round vote.

Santos, a former defence minister, who fell short of an outright majority with around 47% vote in the first round, has been widely favoured with pre-runoff surveys showing him winning nearly two thirds of the vote, reports said.

An independent candidate for the Green Party, Mockus was a distant second place at 21.5 per cent in the first-round election on May 30.

According to surveys, he is far behind in the second round and Sunday’s ongoing vote count showed him running below 30 per cent, said reports.

With his overwhelming lead, Santos, 58, is in line to start a four-year presidential term on August 7.

Santos has pledged a seamless continuation of the policies of the popular outgoing President Alvaro Uribe, who was barred from running for a third-term by constitutional restrictions.

With the Marxist rebels of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) still fighting a civil war after nearly five decades, Sunday’s voting was not without violence, despite the deployment of 350,000 police and soldiers to keep the peace.

At least 16 people were killed over the weekend in rebel attacks, government officials said. The dead were seven police officers, three soldiers and six FARC guerillas.

Officials said that nine FARC members were captured in the port city of Buenaventura.

Uribe has maintained a hard line against FARC throughout his two terms in office.

(Based on internet reports)