Approximately 15.4 million people were summoned to the polls, in elections with mandatory voting. The great unknown is to find out who, among the five million non-traditional voters, will go to the voting polls.

Sixteen governors, 345 mayors, 2,256 councilmen and 302 regional councilmen will be elected.

Due to the large number of positions and the high number of registered voters, the Electoral Service (Servel) decided to divide the elections into two days.

According to Servel data, on the first day more than seven million people went to the polls, for a 46.86 percent turnout.

The initial day passed off calmly, as Prensa Latina was able to confirm in a tour of the capital’s schools, although isolated incidents were recorded.

But the focus of the process has been on the so-called Audios Case, a corruption case involving the influential criminal lawyer Luis Hermosilla and in which Supreme Court magistrates, lawyers, businessmen and right-wing politicians are implicated.

The other scandal, no less relevant, is that of the until recently Undersecretary of the Interior Manuel Monsalve, who had had to resign from his post after being accused of sexual abuse by a subordinate.

Interviewed by the newspaper El Siglo, the former minister and presidential candidate, Jorge Arrate, declared that both facts have been used for electoral and political purposes.

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