BOGOTA, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Colombia holds presidential elections on Sunday. The following are some key facts about the polls in the South American country.

    Colombia, which covers an area of over 114,1748 square km, lies in the north-west of South America, with the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the west.

    Nearly 26.7 million Colombians are eligible to vote for their new president and vice president, whose terms begin on Aug. 7 2006, and run until 2010. Voting begins at 08:00 and ends at 16:00 local time on Sunday.

    Nearly 319,000 Colombians living overseas will also be able to vote in the presidential polls, which Alvaro Uribe, the incumbent president, is favorite to win.

    There are 9,820 polling stations, with a total of 55,510 ballot boxes in 1,098 cities and towns across the country.

    Under Colombia's 1991 constitution, the president is elected for a four-year term by universal adult suffrage and may not serve consecutive terms.

    But on October last year, Colombia's Constitutional Court approved a law allowing presidents to serve more than one term, a move which allows President Alvaro Uribe Velez to stand in May's election.

    To win the presidency in one round, the candidate will have to win more than 50 percent of the vote. If there is no outright winner, a second round will be held on June 18 between the two leading candidates.

    According to the latest opinion poll, Uribe gained 57 percent of support, followed by Carlos Gaviria Diaz, candidate of the Alternative Democratic Pole party. Horacio Serpa, candidate of the Liberal Party, trailed in third place.

    Some 220,000 police and soldiers have been deployed across the country for the elections. There are also 80 observers from the Organization of American States, the European Union and the European Parliament. Enditem