Colombia to hold Presidential runoff, Petro ahead in first round

Bogota: Right-wing presidential candidate Federico Gutierrez is not making it into the second round of the presidential election in Colombia, according to results from the National Electoral Council released after 91.66 percent of the ballots were counted.

Leftist candidate Gustavo Petro is coming ahead in the first round and currently has 40.44 percent of the votes, while businessman Rodolfo Hernandez has 27.99 percent.

Gutierrez has 23.95 percent of the votes. Colombians went to the polls on Sunday to choose their next president. A runoff will be held on June 19 since none of the contenders appears to have won over 50 percent of the votes.