BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The two candidates of Colombia’s far-right and left wing parties came out ahead in a first-round vote on Sunday to choose the country’s next leader, setting the stage for a divisive presidential election, the first since the country signed a peace deal with its rebels.
Iván Duque, 41, a conservative former senator, won about 39 percent of the vote, election officials said Sunday night. Gustavo Petro, 58, a former leftist rebel who rose to become mayor of Bogotá, the capital, won about 25 percent.
The two, who came in ahead of three other major candidates, will face each other in a second and final vote on June 17.
Regardless of the winner, the election is expected to mark a big shift from the administration of Juan Manuel Santos, a centrist whom Colombians sent twice to the presidency and who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for negotiating a peace deal with the country’s main guerrilla group.
The peace accords were initially struck down by a narrow majority of voters, who were angered that it was too lenient on the rebels. Santos then passed a slightly revised deal through Congress shortly afterward, raised taxes and saw his approval rating plummet to 14 percent.
With no centrist candidate on the ballot, the June election will elect a president sure to be a polarizing figure.
“It’s a very stark division in this country,” said Cynthia J. Arnson, who studies Colombia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
While politicians hoped the end of the war would reduce the frictions in Colombian politics, it seems the opposite is taking place. Bitter memories of a war which left at least 220,000 dead and divided families appears to have turned many voters against the traditional parties that brokered the accords.
A host of insurgent candidates challenged the establishment, making the postwar debate about a number of new, polarizing issues: gender rights, dealing with a crumbling Venezuela, the place of religion in politics and the role of a powerful ex-president, Álvaro Uribe.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.