Right-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella has won the first round of Colombia’s presidential election and will face left-wing senator Iván Cepeda, the candidate backed by outgoing President Gustavo Petro, in a run-off due on June 21.
De la Espriella, who leads the Defensores de la Patria (Defenders of the Homeland) movement, took 43.7 per cent of the vote, against 40.9 per cent for Cepeda, of the Pacto Histórico (Historic Pact). The figures come from Colombia’s National Civil Registry (Registraduría), which said it had processed the full count from the May 31 vote.
That translated into more than 10.3 million votes for De la Espriella and almost 9.7 million for Cepeda. Trailing well behind was conservative Paloma Valencia of the Centro Democrático (Democratic Centre), the party of former president Álvaro Uribe, on 6.9 per cent.
De la Espriella, who styled himself “The Tiger” during the campaign, was the first to react. In a video on social media, he said he would go into the run-off “to defeat tyranny and absolutism”, promising to change the country’s history “for ever” and casting himself as a candidate of Colombians who had never lived off the State.
THE RIGHT CLOSES RANKS
Valencia threw her weight behind him within minutes, calling for a “Colombia in freedom” that would not fall into the hands of “communism”.
Uribe, who governed from 2002 to 2010, also urged his supporters to back the right-wing lawyer. The former president said Colombia could not become “a branch office” of the politics he associated with Petro and Cepeda, and pledged that his bloc would vote for De la Espriella in defence of the constitution and individual freedoms.
The endorsements leave De la Espriella as the favourite, with most of the conservative vote consolidating behind him. Cepeda, by contrast, has yet to secure comparable cross-party backing and must now rally a left that remains less united than the right.
SECURITY ALERT AND A DISPUTED COUNT
The first round passed largely without major incident, though Petro, the sitting President, rejected the preliminary count even as the near-final results firmed up.
Colombia’s Defence Ministry said the security alert remained in place and reported eight arrests for electoral offences, six of them in the act for damaging public property and impersonating witnesses. A further 84 people were detained on court orders and 98 reports were handled through a dedicated hotline.
A PERSONAL AND BITTER CONTEST
Cepeda struck a defiant note, predicting he would “win in the second round” and calling on supporters to gather the forces needed to defeat his rival.
He attacked De la Espriella in strongly personal terms, describing him as a “misogynist” and a lawyer who had defended paramilitaries and drug traffickers. He cast his opponent as a representation of “mafia fascism” and claimed he represented a return to a corrupt, “para-political” era, reinforced today by the international right wing.
De la Espriella, for his part, has built his campaign on law and order, free enterprise and opposition to what the Colombian right portrays as a drift towards the model of neighbouring Venezuela.
WHAT IS AT STAKE ON JUNE 21
The run-off offers Colombians a stark choice: continuity with Petro’s left-wing project under Cepeda, or a hard turn to the right under De la Espriella.
The result is being watched across the Americas and in the West, where conservative and right-wing movements have increasingly framed such contests as part of a wider struggle over migration and security.
