Colombia will hold a second presidential round on June 21 after a first round marked by surprise and polarization. The far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella won with 43.7% of the votes and will face the left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda, who obtained 40.9% of the support despite the fact that polls placed him as a favorite to win on election day.
The election leaves the country practically divided into two blocks after a campaign focused on the balance of the four years of Government of Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing president in the history of Colombia. De la Espriella, a 47-year-old criminal lawyer and a regular figure in Colombian public life, became the big winner of the night with a tough speech against insecurity, violence and drug trafficking, issues that have dominated voters’ concerns.
Petro and Cepeda question the pre-count
The first round was also marked by the doubts expressed by the ruling party about the electoral result. President Gustavo Petro assured that he will not accept the results until they are definitively verified, while Iván Cepeda requested clarification on what he described as atypical voting in several polling stations and stated that he will not fully recognize the result until the review of the count is completed.
Faced with these questions, De la Espriella responded harshly from Barranquilla and warned the outgoing president against any attempt to delegitimize the electoral process. The candidate, who calls himself “El Tigre”, assured that he will defend democracy against any maneuver that he considers undemocratic, for which he has not ruled out the use of violence.
The moderate right gives its support to de la Espriella
Conservative candidate Paloma Valencia was left out of the presidential race after obtaining 6.9% of the vote, but immediately announced her support for De la Espriella for the second round. That support could be decisive in a campaign that is expected to be especially tight and in which both candidates will seek to attract voters from the center and the traditional right.
De la Espriella has not hidden his admiration for leaders such as Donald Trump, Javier Milei or Nayib Bukele, whose security model he has cited as a reference for Colombia. Among its proposals stands out the implementation of tougher measures against crime and a review of the “total peace” strategy promoted by the Petro Government.
The second round on June 21 will decide whether Colombia maintains a political project linked to the current ruling party or turns towards a far-right option that could consolidate the tendency of the left to retreat in several Latin American countries.
