Q24N — Confirmed! According to the results of the May 31, 2026, presidential elections in Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella (far-right) and Iván Cepeda (left-wing, Historical Pact) were the two candidates with the most votes and will face each other in a runoff election, as reported by El País and Canal Trece.
The runoff is scheduled for June 21, 2026, where the next president of Colombia will be decided.
De la Espriella led the count in the first round. It will be a very marked ideological duel: far-right vs. left-wing, which promises an intense runoff campaign over the next three weeks.
To win in the first round, 50% +1 of the vote was needed.
No one achieved that, but De la Espriella emerged strengthened. The controversial “outsider,” representing a new right wing in the country—more radical than the traditional one and similar to that of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador or Javier Milei in Argentina—not only received the most votes but did so with a record-breaking support of more than ten million votes.
With a discourse focused on attacking the left and promising a “tough on crime” approach against armed groups and violence, he outperformed Cepeda by more than 650,000 votes, and it is expected that a large portion of the 1.6 million votes cast for the third-place candidate, Paloma Valencia, will go to him on June 21.
In his first statement after becoming the candidate, De la Espriella said on social media, “We made it to the second round thanks to the more than 10 million Colombians who responded to the roar. In 21 days we will make history!”
De la Espriella also called on his supporters in Barranquilla to gather at the venue where he will deliver a speech. The far-right leader added that he will defeat “tyranny and absolutism.”
In the video, he appears surrounded by his family, all wearing Colombian national soccer team jerseys.
With 89.48% of the votes counted, De la Espriella has 43.77%, while Cepeda, of the leftist Historical Pact, has 41.08%.
The latest polls that could be published up until Sunday, May 24, showed De la Espriella trending upward, but in second place. Therefore, snatching first place from Cepeda strengthens his position heading into the second round.
The Uribista candidate, Valencia, who won the right-wing primary in March and aspired to compete against Cepeda, only garnered 6.81%, while no centrist option reached 5%.