Early results show Duque leading vote

BOGOTA (AP):

Early results in Colombia's presidential election show conservative former Senator Ivan Duque leading the race, with two candidates fighting neck and neck for second and a place in what's likely to be a June run-off.

With 60 per cent of polling stations reporting, Duque leads with 41 per cent compared to 24 per cent for former leftist guerrilla Gustavo Petro and 23 per cent for former Medellin Mayor Sergio Fajardo.

The winning candidate needs to win at least 50 per cent of the vote to avoid a June run-off.

The election is the first in decades in which candidates rallied voters on issues like the economy instead of how to defeat leftist rebels.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia signed a contentious peace accord with the government in 2016 that led to the demobilisation of thousands of guerrilla fighters.

For decades, Colombians voted with an eye on the bloody conflict with leftist rebels that dominated their country and politics.

But on Sunday, they were casting their ballots in the first presidential election since the signing of a peace accord with the nation's biggest rebel group to end the conflict and were weighing issues like corruption, inequality, crime and relations with their crisis-plagued neighbour, Venezuela.

DRAMATIC DIFFERENCES

The two leading candidates have presented dramatically different visions for both Colombia's economic model and the future of its divisive peace process in a polarising campaign driven by a wave of anti-establishment sentiment.

Leading the polls is conservative former senator Ivan Duque, the protege of former President Alvaro Uribe, the chief critic of the peace deal, but surveys suggest he is unlikely to get the more than 50 per cent of votes required to avoid a June run-off. He's being chased by Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla and ex-Bogota mayor whose rise has triggered business concerns he would push Colombia towards the left and rattle markets.

At least two other candidates trail within reach of obtaining the second spot and a place in any run-off.

"I want to govern Colombia without a rearview mirror, looking forward to the future of our country," Duque said as voting got under way in the nation's overcast capital on Sunday.

Long lines of voters gathered in Bogota, and police frisked people in at least one polling site - a legacy, perhaps, of when voting centres were targeted by leftist rebels who considered the political system a sham.