Abelardo de la Espriella finished first in Colombia’s presidential election and advanced to a June runoff against progressive senator Iván Cepeda. With 99.98% of results counted, electoral authorities reported 44% for de la Espriella and 41% for Cepeda, leaving neither with the majority required to win in the first round.
Cepeda, an ally of outgoing President Gustavo Petro, said he would wait for electoral authorities to scrutinise the tally before formally responding. Cepeda and Petro alleged that hundreds of thousands of votes and foreign involvement had affected the result, but the Associated Press report said they offered no evidence for those claims. Cepeda nevertheless acknowledged that a second round was likely.
De la Espriella entered politics as an outsider and campaigned on a forceful response to armed groups. Known as El Tigre, he promised ten large prisons and presented himself as an admirer of US President Donald Trump. His first-place showing positioned him to seek support from voters who had backed another conservative candidate.
Cepeda proposed continuing Petro’s attempt to negotiate a broad peace with guerrilla and criminal organisations. The policy had struggled as armed groups expanded control during negotiations. Violence remained a central election concern a decade after Colombia signed its peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Armed attacks and drone strikes affected the campaign environment, and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay had been fatally shot at a rally the previous June.
The result exposed contrasting views of how to address renewed conflict. De la Espriella’s proposals echoed the hard-line gang policy of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, which reduced homicides but drew accusations of human-rights abuses. Cepeda’s supporters argued that returning to military-heavy campaigns could sustain Colombia’s cycle of violence, even while acknowledging shortcomings in Petro’s reforms and security record.
Petro retained support for measures including a higher minimum wage, but the election functioned partly as a judgment on his administration. De la Espriella’s rapid rise in the final weeks upset polling that had often placed Cepeda ahead. The result also weakened Uribismo after another conservative candidate’s defeat.
The first-round count determined only the two finalists. Claims about manipulation remained unsubstantiated in the evidence, and the definitive outcome depended on the runoff. The campaigns entered that stage offering a choice between continued negotiation with armed groups and a punitive security programme. Because votes were still subject to official scrutiny, the reported percentages described the near-complete count rather than a final legally binding declaration.
De la Espriella’s projected advantage in attracting other conservative voters was an assessment of runoff dynamics, not a second-round result. Cepeda still entered the next contest with 41% of the first-round vote and an established progressive constituency. The runoff would test whether ideological consolidation outweighed concerns raised about the initial count.
