BARRANQUILLA, Colombia — The streets of the Colombian city of Barranquilla turned into a carnival on Sunday night, after hard-right Abelardo de la Espriella beat his leftist rival to win the country's presidential runoff election.

Thousands of people celebrated the victory of De la Espriella, who calls himself "The Tiger" and his followers "the pack," with flares, fireworks and flags.

 

The 47-year-old gained popularity during his election campaign with tough-on-crime rhetoric, promising to wage war against drug-running guerrilla groups.

 

Samuel Gomez, a 39-year-old school principal, said he was "very happy and above all tomorrow I'm going to go to work very calm... calm knowing that the issue of security will be addressed again."

 

'New era'

 

De la Espriella made a triumphant speech to a crowd while sporting the canary yellow national football jersey he adopted as his campaign uniform, on the banks of the Magdalena River.

"We are beginning a new era!" he told supporters from behind thick bulletproof glass, where he stood alongside his vice presidential running mate.

 

"To those who have sown violence, terror, drug trafficking, and corruption all these years: your time is up," he said.

With almost all the votes counted, De la Espriella, a millionaire lawyer who has never held public office, had 49.66 per cent of the vote versus left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda's 48.70 per cent.

Cepeda's campaign appealed to progressives and the poor, who have benefited from a drop in poverty and a bump in wages in four years of leftist rule. It did not focus on security.

Jorge Cerda, a 23-year-old student who lives in an area rife with extortion, said: "If we're not free to get around in the morning to our jobs, to our schools, to our homes, how are we going to work?"

 

As the city where he lives, De la Espriella considers Barranquilla his political stronghold. He has the backing of Mayor Alejandro Char, whose family has governed the industrial seaport for the last two decades.

 

But in Barranquilla, as in other Colombian cities, the presidential vote is split.

 

The Caribbean city, the birthplace of stars like Shakira and Sofia Vergara and home to the late Nobel literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, has a popular saying: "Coastal people vote for coastal people."

 

But in Sunday's election, Cepeda, from Bogota but raised in exile, won majority support in the city.

 

While well-off areas mostly support De la Espriella, in working-class outlying neighborhoods the leftist government has been highly popular.

 

'Celebrate at home'

 

Outgoing President Gustavo Petro called the preliminary results into question on Sunday.

 

He had alleged electoral fraud after the first round of voting, which brought De la Espriella and Cepeda to a runoff.

 

Cepeda stopped short of conceding defeat in a speech Sunday evening, telling supporters he would wait until all the votes were validated.

 

De la Espriella supporter and shopkeeper Jaime Acosta, 45, said if Petro "is democratic, as he says he is, he has to respect the people's decision, whatever it may be".

 

After De la Espriella's victory, thousands of people took to the streets in Bogota and Cali in protest, burning US flags and clashing with the police.

 

Lilia Salcedo, a 56-year-old doctor who voted for "The Tiger," said she planned to "celebrate at home" to protect her "integrity".