AP: Sunday, May 31, 1998; 8:04 p.m. EDT

                 Serpa Headed for Runoff in Colombia
                 By Frank Bajak
                 Associated Press Writer
                 -------------------------------------

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Despite widespread disillusion with the
scandal-tainted administration in which he was a key player, Horacio Serpa
was headed Sunday for a runoff with a Conservative Party challenger in
Colombian presidential elections.  With 91 percent, or 10 million, of the
votes counted, Serpa of the governing Liberal Party had 34.5 percent
against 34.4 percent for the Conservatives' Andres Pastrana, a former
Bogota mayor and president's son.

Noemi Sanin, a former foreign minister who had hoped to break the
traditional parties' century-old monopoly on power, had 27 percent,
official results showed.  Sanin's independent campaign had surged in recent
days and she led the voting in major cities, splitting the anti-Serpa vote.

Pastrana had led in pre-election polls by at least six percentage points,
spurred by rejection of the four-year presidency of Ernesto Samper in which
Serpa was interior minister.

But Serpa, a populist who appeals to the poor and billed himself as the
best chance for peace with leftist rebels, benefited from a well-greased
political machine that dominates Congress and has held the presidency for
the past 12 years, trading patronage for voter support.  ``The machinery
still functions,'' said political analyst Juan Manuel Charry, explaining
Serpa's strong showing. But he predicted Pastrana would pick up most Sanin
supporters and prevail in the June 21 runoff.  ``The electorate is clearly
punishing the government,'' Charry said.

Voter turnout was roughly double the votes cast in the first round of the
1994 elections, in which Samper narrowly beat Pastrana.

Under Samper, who was dogged by a drug corruption scandal, the economy
slipped and guerrillas gained power, calling his government illegitimate
and refusing its peace overtures.

At least 11 people were killed and four wounded Sunday in election-related
violence. More than 220,000 soldiers and police were on alert to counter a
sabotage campaign by guerrillas, who burned 14 buses, bombed four polling
stations, dynamited two electrical towers and abducted at least 21 election
officials over the weekend.

Cecilia Ripe, a 33-year-old maid, said she was voting for Serpa because
``he makes decisions and doesn't waver.''  ``And he is the one who can
bring peace to the country,'' she said.

Attacks and ballot-burning by rebels forced the cancellation of voting in
at least 27 towns and villages, and isolated electoral irregularities
reported by authorities.  Four soldiers, three rebels and one civilian were
killed in six separate clashes Sunday in rural regions, and a bomb
targeting a military patrol exploded in the central oil-producing city of
Barrancabermeja, killing three passers-by and wounding a soldier.

Rebels also kidnapped a three-member Colombian television crew in the
thwestern state of Antioquia.  Samper's successor inherits growing rebel
and paramilitary violence, a sagging economy hobbled by 14.5 percent
unemployment and a dispirited army criticized worldwide for its human
rights record.

Ties with the United States were badly strained over the acceptance by
Samper's 1994 campaign of $6 million from the Cali drug cartel. Washington
stripped Samper of his visa and U.S. officials have privately called Serpa
a criminal for allegedly covering up the scandal.

Scores of political, business and cultural leaders, including Nobel
Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, endorsed Pastrana.