In a blow to Colombia’s political class, a leftist former rebel and a populist businessman took the top two spots in the country’s presidential election on Sunday and headed to a runoff showdown in June.

Leftist senator Gustavo Petro led the field of six candidates with just over 40 percent of the votes, while independent real estate tycoon Rodolfo Hernández finished second with more than 28 percent, election authorities said on Sunday evening.

A candidate needed 50 percent of the total votes to win outright the contest held amid a polarised environment and growing discontent over increasing inequality and inflation.

No matter who wins on June 19, the South American country long governed by conservatives or moderates will see a dramatic shift in presidential politics.

Petro has promised to make significant adjustments to the economy, including tax reform, and to change how Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed groups. Hernández, whose spot in the runoff contest came as a surprise, has few connections to political parties and promises to reduce wasteful government spending and to offer rewards for people who report corrupt officials.

Looking at areas where Hernández won in some of the most traditional heartland departments, “the rejection of the status quo even among many of the most conservative Colombians... really does show a disgust with the traditional workings of Colombian politics,” said Adam Isacson, an expert on Colombia at the Washington Office on Latin America think tank.

Petro’s main rival for most of the campaign was Federico Gutierrez, a former mayor of Medellin who was seen as the continuity candidate and ran on a pro-business, economic growth platform. But Hernández began to move up strongly in recent polls heading into the election.

There has been a series of leftist political victories in Latin America as people seek change at a time of dissatisfaction with the economic situation. Chile, Peru and Honduras elected leftist presidents in 2021, and in Brazil, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is leading the polls for this year’s presidential election. Mexico elected a leftist president in 2018.

“The main problem in the country is the inequality of conditions, the work is not well paid,” said Jenny Bello, who sold coffee near a long line of voters under a typical cloudy sky in the capital of Bogotá. She had to resort to informal sales after months without work because of the pandemic.

This was the second presidential election held since the government signed in 2016 a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC for its initials in Spanish. But the divisive agreement was not a main issue during the campaign, which focused on poverty, inflation and other challenges exacerbated by the pandemic.

It is Petro’s third attempt to become president. He was defeated in 2018 by Iván Duque, who was not eligible to seek re-election.

“What is in dispute today is change. The political parties allied to the government of Duque, his political project, has been defeated in Colombia,” Petro told his supporters as they celebrated at his campaign headquarters in Bogotá. “Colombia’s total vote launches that message to the world: A period is ending; an era is ending.”

A victory for Petro would usher in a new political era in a country that has long marginalised the left due to its perceived association with the nation’s armed conflict. He was once a rebel with the now-defunct M-19 movement and was granted amnesty after being jailed for his involvement with the group.

“The peace accords of 2016 really broke the link between left politics and guerrillas/terrorists,” Isacson said. “I think people suddenly realised they could be very critical of the existing system without being painted as a guerrilla.”

But in a sign of the resistance to a leftist government, Gutierrez endorsed Hernández shortly after he was left out of the runoff.

“Knowing that our position is decisive for the future of Colombia, we have made a decision... we do not want to lose the country,” Gutierrez said, adding that he would support Hernández because he does not want to put Colombia “at risk.”

Hernández, the former mayor of the north-central city of Bucaramanga, surged in recent polls with promises to “clean” the country of corruption and to donate his salary. (AP)