Incumbent favoured to win 2014 poll but faces challenge from conservative Oscar Zuluaga, who opposes Farc peace talks
The Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, has announced he will run for re-election next May.
The news had been widely expected and victory would give the 62-year-old president four more years to pursue the peace negotiations he launched with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).
Santos made the announcement on Wednesday night. He was first elected president in 2010.
A recent poll has put Santos ahead of four other possible candidates but with a relatively low support level.
The poll by Invamer-Gallup found 27% of people surveyed would vote for Santos, with Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, a former finance minister, in second place at 15%. Various polls predict Santos will win in a second round run-off.
"I'm running because I'm convinced we have advanced sufficiently and finally it is possible to reach that future of prosperity and peace all Colombians deserve," Santos, 62, said in a televised address to the nation.
"I'm doing it because when you can see the light at the end of the tunnel you don't turn back."
Zuluaga, a one-time senator and provincial mayor, argues that Farc negotiations have brought extra uncertainty and an upsurge in attacks on infrastructure. He has accused Santos of offering the rebels too many concessions and pursuing the talks to get himself into the history books.
Zuluaga is an ally of former President Alvaro Uribe, a fierce critic of Santos since they fell out in 2010. The two conservative politicians have called for the Farc talks in Cuba to be scrapped. "We will not accept that our soldiers and police keep being murdered or unjustly persecuted while terrorists, kidnappers and murderers walk freely on the beaches in Havana," Zuluaga said in a short statement after Santos spoke.
In Havana government mediators are working through a five-point agenda with three dozen rebel leaders seeking to put a stop to bloodshed that has left more than 200,000 people dead since it began in 1964.
Earlier this month the two sides reached agreement on one of the toughest items on the agenda: Farc political participation. While details of the accord have not yet been revealed, the rebels are expected to be allowed to hold some sort of public office and possibly gain access to Congress.
Many Colombians are worried about the potential radicalising effect on their traditionally conservative politics should Farc leaders be allowed to run for seats in Congress and other public office.
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