The far-right wins by surprise in the first round in Colombia and the left questions the result
The ultra Abelardo de la Espriella and Iván Cepeda, Petro's candidate, will compete for the presidency on June 21st
BarcelonaThe far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella has surprisingly won the first round of the Colombian presidential elections, with a participation of 57.88%, and will compete in the second round on June 21 with Iván Cepeda, the left-wing candidate. President Gustavo Petro has cast doubt on the results.
The National Electoral Registry, organizer of the elections, has reported that, with 99.99% of the polling stations counted, De la Espriella, from the far-right movement Defensores de la Patria, has received 10,361,413 votes (43.74%), more than 673,000 votes more than Cepeda, who obtained 9,688,245 votes (40.9%). Participation has been the highest in a first round since the Constitution of 1991 came into effect in a traditionally abstentionist country, where voting is not compulsory and turnout is usually slightly above 50%.
"As president, I do not accept the preliminary count results," said President Petro, who endorsed Cepeda, adding that he will await the scrutiny to be carried out in the coming days.
For his part, De la Espirella has proclaimed victory: "More than ten million Colombians have trusted the Tiger, they have joined the pack. We are going to the second round to defeat tyranny, absolutism. In 21 days we will change the history of Colombia forever."
The candidate for the Democratic Center, Paloma Valencia, with 1.6 million votes, has taken third place and is the big loser of these elections, with a result much lower than what she obtained in the primaries. In fourth place is Sergio Fajardo, from the center party Dignidad & Compromiso, with one million votes, representing 4.26%. Another center candidate, the former mayor of Bogotá Claudia López, has taken fifth place with 225,517 votes (0.95%).
Doubts of the left
In his speech after learning the results, Cepeda was less forceful than Petro and raised doubts about the official figures. "There is a discrepancy that we want to verify regarding the electoral census, and it is not just any discrepancy: we are talking about 885,000 people," he said in Bogotá to his followers, without giving details about the origin of this figure.
De la Espriella, who appeared before his followers on a boat on the Magdalena River, in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla, responded to them: "Petro, Cepeda, you pair of delinquents, do not dare, do not think of disregarding the popular will because here there is a people that will confront you and defeat you."
Moves towards the second round
After this Sunday's votes, Senator Valencia immediately announced that she will support De la Espriella in the second round. However, his vice-presidential running mate, Juan Daniel Oviedo, stated that the votes they expected to receive from a large part of the right wing "have disappeared" due to De la Espriella's campaign, which he considered "dirty, sexist, and homophobic".
Former senator Roy Barreras, who barely received 14,108 votes (0.05%) and finished in second-to-last place among the eleven candidates, announced his support for Cepeda's candidacy and asked the left-wing aspirant to seek the "three million votes" that he believes the political center obtained this Sunday to defeat De la Espriella.