By Nelson Bocanegra
BOGOTA, May 28 (Reuters) - Leftist Colombian activist and Senator Ivan Cepeda, whose youth was marked by exile and his father's murder at the hands of right-wing paramilitaries, is heading into Sunday's presidential vote with a pledge to deepen his predecessor's economic and social reforms.
Cepeda, 63, is leading in public opinion polls but is unlikely to win an outright majority, setting the stage for a challenging runoff on June 21 when right-wing and centrist votes will no longer
be split among multiple candidates.
He has vowed to continue economic changes pushed by President Gustavo Petro, a former leftist guerrilla and the country's first leftist president.
The two allies have said reforms are essential to right centuries of deep inequality in the Andean country, although business leaders and establishment conservative and centrist political parties have criticized a pension reform as risking Colombia's fiscal health.
Cepeda, who has studied philosophy, law and political science in Bulgaria and France as well as in his home country, has also vowed to redouble efforts to negotiate peace with leftist guerrillas and crime gangs, although such talks have yielded limited results under Petro.
"I warmly invite you to finish the task with a strong victory at the ballot box, and defeat the far right as it deserves," Cepeda told supporters at his final campaign rally.
CEPEDA INVOLVED IN LEFTIST POLITICS SINCE HIS YOUTH
His profile rose after his political rival, former President Alvaro Uribe, was sentenced to 12 years' house arrest for fraud and bribery in a case that classified Cepeda as one of several victims. The ruling was later overturned, although Cepeda has appealed against that decision.
Cepeda is the son of two prominent communist leaders and has been involved in leftist parties since his youth. When he was a young child, the family lived in exile, first in what was then Czechoslovakia and then in Havana.
His father, Manuel Cepeda, was killed in 1994 in Bogota while riding in his car. The younger Cepeda said he spotted his father's body from the window of a bus that happened to pass the scene of the shooting when he was on his way to university. He initially believed it was a traffic accident.
Cepeda has pledged to implement "social capitalism" as president: reforming laws to allow communities access to state contracts for construction projects, food production and other services, while expanding income support for the elderly, poor families and young people.
He has also pledged to expand land reform efforts by handing 1 million hectares to victims of internal conflict, as well as to expand social benefits and improve basic services.
"It is a program that sets out social reforms that I want not only to deepen and consolidate, but in some cases to radicalize," he has said.
Cepeda, who participated in talks that produced a 2016 peace deal between the government and former FARC guerrillas, has vowed to continue Petro's efforts to negotiate with armed groups and backs a rewriting of the country's constitution.
His political opponents have alleged close ties between him and former FARC leaders, which he denies.
Cepeda is married to anthropologist Pilar Rueda.
(Reporting by Nelson Bocanegra; Editing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Edmund Klamann)
