Iván Cepeda registers candidacy and aims to win Colombian Presidency in first round

Bogotá.- Colombian Senator Iván Cepeda, from the ruling leftist Historic Pact party, registered his candidacy for the Presidency this Wednesday and assured that he will seek to win the elections in the first round, which will be held on May 31st. «We are going for the dispute of the Presidency of the Republic (...) with an increasingly strong campaign, increasingly solid, increasingly close to obtaining a triumph, as we are going to obtain it, in the first round on May 31st», expressed Cepeda, who leads the polls of voting intention, after registering his candidacy in the Registrar's Office, which organizes the elections. The candidate, who apologized for arriving six hours late to the registration event, was accompanied by the indigenous Nasa leader and Senator Aída Quilcué, who is his running mate for the Vice Presidency, and by other leaders of the Historic Pact. We recommend reading:

Electoral Support Boosts the Historic Pact

Last Sunday, that party became the most voted political force in the Senate by obtaining 25 of the 103 seats, while in the House of Representatives, composed of 183 seats, everything indicates that it will have 40 seats. «We are the political force most loved and supported by Colombians today. This was expressed in the electoral mobilization last Sunday, this is how I have felt throughout my electoral campaign throughout the country,» Cepeda, who has been a senator since 2014 and was a representative to the Chamber between 2010 and 2014, asserted. The candidate, who was expecting to participate last Sunday in the presidential consultation of the left called 'Front for Life', was excluded weeks before by a decision of the National Electoral Council (CNE), which argued that he had already participated in a similar consultation last October.

The winner of the consultation on the left was former senator Roy Barreras, who in the first round will try to snatch from Cepeda the votes and leadership that the polls of voting intention have given him so far.

However, Cepeda insisted that the Historical Pact, of which the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, is also a part, "stands as the main political force" in the country after Sunday's legislative elections and therefore seeks victory in the first round.

Choice of Quilcué

The leftist candidate defended the choice of Quilcué as a running mate, arguing that she represents "the great culture, ethical principles, and the heritage of struggle" of indigenous peoples. "I am part of a people, one of its children and today I am a servant of the people (…) I am a defender of the principle that the original peoples have instilled in us: one must command by obeying," added the candidate. Quilcué, for his part, stated that he will continue working "for life and for peace", for "dialogue with others". «We are going to continue working for the transformations, but also in this Government we have discussed it with the next president Iván Cepeda: our flag will be to remove corruption from the institutionality», added the senator.