According to a poll released today in Bogotá, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe boasts higher favorability ratings than any of the candidates competing for votes in the May 30 presidential elections. Although Mr. Uribe’s 73.7 percent approval rating is a historic high for a sitting president in Colombia, a February Supreme Court decision barred him from seeking a third term in office.
The presidential contenders also earned favorable reviews: 68 percent of poll respondents gave a favorable opinion of Antanas Mockus, who is the Green Party candidate and a former mayor of Bogotá. Partida de la U candidate Juan Manuel Santos earned a 59.4 percent favorability rating, followed by Conservative Party candidate Noemí Sanín with 58.2 percent.
A second poll released today, commissioned by 14 Colombian newspapers, shows a tight race between Mockus and Santos. Santos’s two percent lead is an improvement since late April, when polls showed Mockus surging ahead. If neither candidate receives 50 percent of the vote on May 30, the two biggest vote-getters will face each other in a runoff election on June 20.
