Colombian voters have showed lukewarm support for peace talks with guerillas by giving the country's president a majority in Congress, but also electing his conservative rival, ex-president Alvaro Uribe, to the senate.
President Juan Manuel Santos, who took office in 2010 after serving as the popular Uribe's defence minister, is engaged in talks with Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels aimed at ending their half-century insurgency.
Uribe, who vehemently opposed the talks when they opened in late 2002 in Cuba, was elected senator Sunday with strong support.
Nevertheless Santos's centre-right coalition won 47 of the 102 senate seats, according to official returns with nearly all of the votes counted.
In the lower chamber, Santos supporters won 91 of the 163 seats, official returns show.
The vote "is an important sign for the country and the whole world that the immense majority of us want peace," Santos, who is up for re-election on May 25, said late Sunday.
Santos then extended an olive branch to the ex-president.
"I also want to congratulate senator Uribe," he said. "I hope that we can leave aside the hatred and resentments, and can work for the country."
Uribe's 2002-2010 tenure in office was characterised by a military crackdown - ironically, led by Santos - that decimated the FARC's top leadership. He opposed all negotiations with guerillas, and left office with high approval ratings.
