Bogota, June 22, 2026
Preliminary results showed Colombia’s independent candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the far-right Defenders of the Homeland movement leading the country’s presidential runoff, though the early vote count was immediately questioned by President Gustavo Petro and the governing coalition’s candidate.
With 99.97 per cent of votes counted, De la Espriella had 49.66 per cent of the vote, compared with 48.70 per cent for Ivan Cepeda of the left-wing governing Historic Pact coalition, a gap of about 250,000 votes.
Petro said on social media on Sunday that no candidate could yet be declared president. He alleged irregularities during the election process but said he would abide by the decision of judicial authorities and called on citizens to remain calm.
Cepeda, speaking after the preliminary vote count, said the figures would not be treated as official or legally binding.
“We recognise this first result, but we must also report that our team of witnesses, tens of thousands of lawyers, are moving to challenge 33,000 polling tables across the country. Each one must be subject to scrutiny,” he said.
Cepeda called on his electoral monitoring team to closely follow the review of each of those tables, records and results.
De la Espriella declared victory on Sunday. Local media reported that several right-wing Latin American leaders, including Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and Argentine President Javier Milei, congratulated him.
Under Colombia’s electoral system, vote counting is conducted through two parallel processes. After polls close, a preliminary tally is carried out by technical service providers contracted by the National Civil Registry. However, this result has no legal standing. A subsequent official review is then conducted by judges and electoral authorities, and this legally binding process determines the final outcome, Xinhua news agency reported.
Voting in the presidential runoff was held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time (1300-2100 GMT) on Sunday. The country operated about 13,000 polling stations for over 41.4 million registered voters.
Colombia held the first round of its presidential election on May 31, when no candidate secured more than half of the vote. Under electoral rules, the top two finishers, De la Espriella and Cepeda, advanced to the runoff. The next president is scheduled to take office on August 7.(Agency)
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