Bloomberg — Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro extended his lead over his main rival in the latest poll, with just over one month to go until the election.
In the most likely runoff scenario, leftist Senator Petro would get 44.8% of votes versus 36.9% for former Medellin mayor Federico “Fico” Gutierrez, according to a poll by the National Consulting Center, or CNC, published by Semana magazine.
Another CNC poll published earlier this month showed the gap between the two within the margin of error. Petro would win a runoff against all the other candidates, the poll found.
Petro has pledged to change Colombia’s economic model to one less dependent on fossil fuels and is feared by many investors. Gutierrez is a conservative who is promising to take a tough line on security.
The latest poll appears to show that Petro wasn’t badly hurt by a recent scandal in which his brother visited a jail to meet former officials convicted of corruption offenses.
In the first round of voting, Petro would get 38% compared to 23.8% for Gutierrez, according to the survey. Former mayor of Bucaramanga Rodolfo Hernandez would come third with 9.6%, while Sergio Fajardo, another former Medellin mayor, would get 7.2%.
The poll of 4,599 people was conducted between April 18 and 21 and has a margin of error of plus of minus 1.4 percentage point. The first round of voting is on May 29, with a likely runoff three weeks later.
