1946 Colombian presidential election

1946 Colombian presidential election
← 1942 5 May 1946 1949 →
 
Nominee Mariano Ospina Pérez Gabriel Turbay Jorge Eliécer Gaitán
Party Conservative Liberal Liberal dissident
Popular vote 565,939 441,199 358,957
Percentage 41.43% 32.30% 26.28%
President before election

Alfonso López Pumarejo
Liberal

Elected President

Mariano Ospina Pérez
Conservative

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Presidential elections were held in Colombia on 5 May 1946, pitching the Colombian Conservative Party against two different Colombian Liberal Party candidates.[1] The Liberals received more votes combined, but due to their division the result was a victory for Mariano Ospina Pérez of the Conservative Party, who received 41.4% of the vote.[2] One of the Liberal candidates, Gabriel Turbay, was also supported by the Social Democratic Party.[2]

Two years after the election, the second Liberal Party candidate, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala, was assassinated. This in turn sparked a ten-year civil war known as La Violencia.[2]

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume II, p305 ISBN 978-0-19-928358-3
  2. ^ a b c Nohlen, p351