Residents react during the ballot count for the peace agreement signed by the Colombian government and the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC), in Bogota, capital of Colombia, on Oct. 2, 2016. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Sunday acknowledged that voters had rejected a peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), insisting that the ceasefire still exists. (Xinhua/Jhon Paz)
BOGOTA, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The future of the peace process in Colombia is now uncertain as the No camp took a razor-thin lead Sunday in a national vote on whether to accept the agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Weeks of polling had shown the Yes camp would win by an almost two-to-one margin. But with almost all the votes counted, 50.2 percent of Colombians who voted Sunday opposed the deal and 49.8 percent favored it, according to the National Civil Registry's website.
However, many of the areas most affected by the conflict voted massively in support of the deal, such as the department of Cauca, where 67.4 percent backed the agreement. Despite this, two major cities, Medellin and Bucaramanga, saw a major victory for No, which proved crucial to the result.
Low turnout of just 37.4 percent may have been due to Hurricane Matthew, which dumped heavy rain in the country's Caribbean regions.
There were calls to extend polling hours but the government refused.
The result will come as a heavy blow to the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC, who reached a peace deal in August after four years of negotiations and signed it on Sept. 26 in Cartagena, Colombia.
Santos admitted defeat in the national vote, but he insisted that the ceasefire remain in place.
Colombians' shock decision is a major victory for former President Alvaro Uribe, who led an active No campaign. The No campaign held that the offers of impunity to FARC members were too broad and that they should be punished for their crimes.
Maria Fernanda Cabal, a senator from the Democratic Center party, told the El Tiempo daily that "human dignity cannot be negotiated. It is clear that principles cannot be negotiated. They must think of the entire country. Peace without justice is no peace. The country must rethink how 7,000 bandits (FARC members) changed us all as Colombians."
Data from Colombia's National Center for Historical Memory showed the 52-year-long civil war has left 220,000 people dead, 25,000 missing and more than 5.7 million homeless in the country.
A survey by a peace and development research institute estimated the economic loss had reached 179 billion U.S. dollars.
