Voters in Colombia went to the polls today, and decisively elected a new president. Former defense minister Juan Manual Santos easily captured victory with 69% of the vote. Antanas Mockus, his green party opponent (pictured on right), received only 27%.

This ends a roller coaster campaign ride for Mockus. In mid-May the environmental world grew excited as he was thought to be the first green candidate with a legitimate chance to win a presidential election. Polls suggested that he had skyrocketed into serious contention during mid-May, running hard on a pledge to clean up government corruption and create jobs.

In the end, the polls seem to have reflected sentiment more than voters' actual behavior. After the 1st round of voting Santos nearly won the election outright (he received 46.6% of the vote). Mockus's base of support was much weaker than polls indicated, and the air in his campaign deflated prior to today's run-off.

Santos will be inaugurated as Colombia's new president on August 7th, and is expected to continue the policies of his predecesor, Alvaro Uribe.

If you like Levi's articles you can read more at

or subscribe to his article stream on Facebook.

Image Courtesy of lg.gomez on Flickr