Santos' election is all for nothing if the voters do not eventually support the peace process through the consulta popular.

In a show of support for the Colombia peace process, voters turned out on Sunday to re-elect Juan Manuel Santos by a margin of 6 percent over his anti-peace competitor Óscar Iván Zuluaga. Michael Shifter takes a look at why Santos emerged victorious and what it means for ongoing talks with the FARC in Foreign Policy.

Moreover, for Santos the problem is that, by all measures, a significant number of Colombians remain dead-set against what they see as the excessively lenient terms and conditions that could well be negotiated. Santos has promised to submit any final accord to a national referendum or "consulta popular" (what might be regarded as the "third round" of this electoral cycle). His gamble is that, once the agreement is ironed out, most Colombians -- eager to see the conflict end and move on in peace -- will eventually come around. Whether it will work out the way the government envisions (especially with Uribe in the Senate, pounding away) remains to be seen.

I'd just say that the government and guerrillas cannot wait until the agreements are in place before trying to convince the Colombian people to support them. We have a two-level game going on during the negotiations, perhaps even a more complicated one than that. While the FARC and Colombian government negotiate in Havana, they need to ensure that what they agree to is supported by the coalitions that the represent and that the final accords are accepted by the Colombian people which we will find out when the accords go up for a vote. They need to take what the people will support into consideration while negotiating and, at the same time, trying to move public opinion in support of the proposals.

Santos' election is all for nothing if the voters do not eventually support the peace process through the consulta popular.

Other takes on the Colombian elections come from Boz (mandate is a little strong here), Greg (FARC negotiations are more likely to succeed this time with US support; negotiations during Bush administration were not supported by the US), and Geoffrey.