Published 05/31/2026 20:42 | Edited 05/31/2026 20:43
Colombia will have a second round of presidential elections. With 99% of the ballots counted, the far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella received 43.7% of the votes, followed by Ivan Cepeda, from the left, successor to Gustavo Petro, who obtained 40.90%.
The first round was held this Sunday (31) with a total of 14 presidential candidates. The second will be on June 21st. The positions of senator and federal deputy are also up for grabs — the results of which had not yet been announced at the time of writing this article.
The two presidential candidates were the favorites in opinion polls, generally with Cepeda ahead. The conservative right-wing candidate Paloma Valencia also appeared among the best positioned, who, however, ended up with a performance below what was indicated in the polls, coming in third place, with almost 7%.
The first place winner, millionaire Abelardo da la Espriella, from the National Salvation Movement, follows the style of Nayib Bukele, ultra-right president of El Salvador, and is aligned with Donald Trump, from the USA, and Javier Milei, from Argentina. In addition to extremist ideas, he is of the media and popular type, just like his idols.
Ivan Cepeda is a philosopher and former senator from the left-wing Historic Pact, who is running to succeed the current president, Gustavo Petro, one of Latin America’s main leaders in the resistance to imperialism.
Although there were some incidents, the elections took place normally and ended at 4pm local time — 6pm in Brasília. The most serious cases were explosions near polling stations in Caquetá and Guaviare, in the Colombian Amazon. There were no injuries.
Source: vermelho.org.br