Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize in a competitive year with a record 376 candidates vying for the award.
The five-member Norwegian committee announced its decision on Friday, the only one of six Nobel awards to be presented in Oslo and the one which traditionally garners the greatest attention.
The prestigious prize was wide open this year, according to experts, with varying predictions on what the judges would decide.
Of the 376 candidates, 228 were individuals and 148 were organisations. The previous record was set in 2014, with 278 nominations.
Santos beat competition from individuals and groups including: Pope Francis; The Syrian White Helmets; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; doctor Denis Mukwege, Jean Nacatche Banyere, Jeannette Kahindo Bindu – a DRC group working with survivors of sexual violence; Russian activist Svetlana Gannushkina; the people who negotiated the Iranian nuclear deal; whistleblower Edward Snowden; and Greek islanders who work to help refugees when they arrive from perilous journeys across the Mediterranean.
Underlining the difficulty of predicting the winner, last year’s prize went to four Tunisian groups who were instrumental in the country’s transition to democracy – none of whom had been mentioned in any of the pre-announcement speculation.
Santos joins a list of 129 Nobel Peace Prize Laureates including US President Theodore Roosevelt; three-time recipient International Committee of the Red Cross; US civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr; South African President Nelson Mandela and Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman.
The Nobel committee spokeswoman applauded President Santos for saying he would fight for peace until his last day in office.
“The committee hopes that the peace prize will give him strength to succeed in this demanding task. Further, it is the committee’s hope that in the years to come, the Colombian people will reap the fruits of the reconciliation process.”
She said that though the peace accord was rejected in the referendum, the negotiations have “brought the bloody conflict significantly closer to a peaceful solution” and Santos’s “endeavours to promote peace demonstrate the spirit of Alfred Nobel’s will”.
The prize was first awarded in 1901.
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