Polls open in Colombia’s presidential runoff

BOGOTA: Colombians began voting in a presidential runoff Sunday, facing a stark choice between a hard-right, White House-backed lawyer and a leftist senator that will decide the fate of a stumbling peace process and strained ties with Washington.

Up to 41 million voters will choose between frontrunner Abelardo de la Espriella and his leftist rival Ivan Cepeda — the latest in a series of hyper-polarized Latin American elections.

Security issues have dominated a campaign marred by bomb attacks and the murder of a leading conservative presidential candidate in broad daylight in Bogota.

De la Espriella, a dual US-Colombian national who calls himself “The Tiger”, won May’s first-round vote by promising to wage war on drug-running guerrilla groups who refused to sign a 2016 peace accord.

De la Espriella has won President Donald Trump’s “complete and total endorsement” and hopes to ride a right-wing wave that has swept rightist candidates to power in Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras.

Cepeda is a 63-year-old philosopher-turned-senator and human rights defender and has been a key figure behind the current government’s policy of negotiating “total peace” with armed groups.

Cepeda is the son of a communist senator killed by right-wing paramilitaries and is the political heir to outgoing President Gustavo Petro — who is constitutionally barred from running.