Conservative political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella won a razor-thin lead in Colombia's runoff presidential election on Sunday, a result that will be challenged in the coming days by the ruling party’s progressive candidate. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded.
De la Espriella, a business owner and lawyer who earned US President Donald Trump’s endorsement despite never having run for office, led progressive lawmaker Ivan Cepeda taking 49.7% of the votes, with 99.9% of results released by electoral authorities. Cepeda, Petro’s ally, earned 48.7% support. Election officials have not formally announced a winner.
With 99.58% of votes counted, De la Espriella won with 12,914,381 votes against Cepeda's 12,663,687, in one of the highest voter turnout rates in Colombian history (preliminary results).
The essentials:
- According to official preliminary results, Colombia’s new president is far-right millionaire Abelardo de la Espriella, a political newcomer backed by US President Donald Trump.
- With 99.96% of ballots counted, De la Espriella won with 12,955,911 votes, compared with 12,706,523 for his opponent, left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda, a close ally of outgoing President Gustavo Petro.
- The margin stands at fewer than 250,000 votes, the narrowest in the country’s recent history. Cepeda acknowledged the preliminary count showing his rival as the winner, but said the results are not final and announced that his party will challenge the results from 33,000 polling stations across the country.
- The election recorded one of the highest voter turnouts in Colombia’s history.
- More than 41.4 million Colombians were eligible to vote in the runoff election, including 1.4 million voters living abroad.
We brought you live coverage of Colombia’s historic election day from Bogota. 👇🏽
