<article><p class="lead">Ivan Duque, the pro-market follower of influential former president Alvaro Uribe, swept Colombia's presidential run-off election today, overtaking his leftist rival Gustavo Petro by a wide margin.</p><p>Duque of the Centro Democratico party will succeed two-term moderate president Juan Manuel Santos, who signed Colombia's landmark 2016 peace agreement with former guerrilla group Farc, won the Nobel peace prize and recently presided over Colombia's entry into the OECD.</p><p>With 99.99pc of the votes tallied, Duque attracted 53.98pc of the vote compared with 41.81pc for Petro. Of Colombia's 32 departments, Duque prevailed in 24.</p><p>Duque won the first round election on 27 May, and was the overwhelming favorite of Colombia's business community, including the oil and coal industries that underpin the economy. He has pledged tax reform and incentives for investment. Both should be easier to fulfill on the back of a boom in oil revenues from higher oil prices so far this year.</p><p>But Duque was also supported by a broad wave of voters who want the government to toughen the terms of the historic peace deal, which many deem to be weak on Farc leaders accused of violent crimes in more than 50 years of bloody conflict marked by frequent kidnappings and oil pipeline attacks. </p><p>He will take office on 7 August for a four-year term. Among the first tests of Duque's political stance will be the current government's peace talks with ELN, which is now Colombia's main guerrilla group. The Santos administration has been seeking to forge a new bilateral ceasefire with ELN after a previous agreement expired in January, leading to a revival of guerrilla strikes, on top of attacks by Farc dissidents and criminal groups that are active along the country´s borders with Venezuela and Ecuador.</p><p>Among Duque's other key challenges is skyrocketing migration from neighboring Venezuela, where autocratic President Nicolas Maduro regularly accuses Colombia of interfering along with Washington to topple his government. </p><p>Duque's vice president-elect is political veteran Marta Lucia Ramirez, Uribe's former defense minister and former minister of international trade under his predecessor Andres Pastrana. Ramirez is close to outspoken Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. </p><p>In his victory speech, the president-elect called for political unity, vowed to tackle corruption and pledged "security with justice" and "corrections" to the peace agreement to put victims at the center of the process and allow the development of "sustainable productive projects." He promised to stimulate innovation and protect the environment.</p><p>Petro, a former member of the disbanded guerrilla group M-19 who transitioned into politics to become mayor of Bogota, was unable to shake off persistent fears that he would take Colombia down Venezuela´s ruinous economic path. But he is poised to remain a force in Colombian politics. </p><p>"I don't feel defeated…This is a struggle of decades," he said in a lengthy and fiery concession speech this evening, repeating assertions that Colombia must shed its dependence on oil and coal. He pledged to block oil hydraulic fracturing, fight corruption and defend the peace agreement. He also urged his supporters to remain mobilized. </p><p>"For now we will not be the government," Petro said in a tweet shortly after the polls closed when his defeat was already evident. </p><p>No major incidents or irregularities were reported in today's election, highlighting the country's progress away from the extreme violence and assassinations that marred elections in the past.</p><p>The abstention rate in today's poll was around 35pc.</p></article>
