Colombia on Sunday elected the first leftist president in its history after Gustavo Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla movement, defeated construction magnate Rodolfo Hernandez in the presidential election.

Petro, a current senator in Colombia and the former mayor of Bogota, won 50.8% of votes in the election while Hernandez secured 46.9%, losing by a margin of 797,973 votes, with 99% of ballots counted.

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According to Reuters, some 20 million people cast their votes nationwide. While Colombia has some 39 million registered voters, abstention was expected to be high for this year’s election, given that voters faced a tough choice between electing the first left-wing president in their history, or voting for Hernandez, dubbed the Colombian Donald Trump.

With a win now secured, the 62-year-old Petro faces the stiff challenge of improving the economy of Colombia, a country where half the population does not have enough to eat while 40% live in poverty.

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Petro’s historic win was accompanied by another momentous occasion in Colombia’s history as voters chose environmental activist Francia Marquez to be Vice President, making the 40-year-old the country’s first Black female to hold the position.

The duo will be sworn in on August 7.

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That being said, some fear political violence could hamper the transfer of power from the deeply unpopular and incumbent Ivan Duque, especially given the tight nature of the contest between the two candidates, Petro and Hernandez.

No stranger to political violence, Colombia has seen five presidential candidates assassinated in the 20th century, and in an attempt to prevent violence on election results day, 320,000 troops have been deployed to stymie any possible clashes.