The right-wing Abelardo de la Espriella, from the Defenders of the Homeland movement, won this Sunday in the second round of the presidential elections in Colombia by obtaining 12,921,702 votes (49.65%), a narrow advantage of 248,310 ballots (0.95 percentage points) over the leftist Iván Cepeda, according to 99.65% of the preliminary count prepared by the National Registry.
The right-wing Abelardo de la Espriella, from the Defenders of the Homeland movement, won this Sunday in the second round of the presidential elections in Colombia by obtaining 12,921,702 votes (49.65%), a narrow advantage of 248,310 ballots (0.95 percentage points) over the leftist Iván Cepeda, according to 99.65% of the preliminary count prepared by the National Registry.
Cepedaof the Historical Pact, party of the Colombian president, Gustavo Petroreceives 12,673,392 votes, equivalent to 48.70%, indicates the preliminary count.
The difference between the two candidates is much closer than the polls predicted.so it will be necessary to wait for the scrutiny to officially confirm the result.
File photograph from June 9, 2026, showing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, winner of the second presidential round in Colombia. (EFE/ Ricardo Maldonado Rozo / ARCHIVE).
/ Ricardo Maldonado Rozo
The advantage of De la Espriella, of the Defenders of the Homeland movement, is less than half of the 659,1340 votes with which he won in the first roundon May 31, which indicates that although both candidates increased their wealth, Cepeda did so in a greater proportion.
Likewise today there were 426,013 blank votes, equivalent to 1.63%, and 220,507 null votes (0.83%), while 29,455 electoral cards were not marked, equivalent to 0.11%.
Supporters of Colombian presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella celebrate in Barranquilla. (EFE/ Ernesto Guzmán).
So far neither De la Espriella nor Cepeda have commented on the result of this close vote on which President Petro said that “there are many irregularities” Therefore, he reiterated that the last word will be the scrutiny carried out by more than 9,000 judges of the Republic and notaries.
