Bogotá (EFE).- Far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defensores de la Patria (Defenders of the Homeland) movement, and leftist Iván Cepeda of the Pacto Histórico (Historical Pact), will compete in a presidential runoff election on June 21st, after receiving the most votes in the first round held on Sunday.
With 99.8% of polling stations counted, De la Espriella delivered a surprise by surpassing 10 million votes (43.73%). This result significantly outperformed the polls, which consistently placed him in second place, behind Cepeda.
The leftist candidate, Cepeda, came in second with 9.6 million ballots (40.91%). This is with less than 0.3% of the 122,020 polling stations still to be reported from Sunday’s elections, according to the National Registry (Registraduría Nacional), the body that organizes the elections.
However, since neither candidate secured the necessary “half plus one” majority of votes to be declared the winner in the first round, De la Espriella and Cepeda will proceed to a second round in three weeks.
Third place went to Senator Paloma Valencia of the Centro Democrático (Democratic Center) party, who received 1.6 million votes in this partial count (6.92%).
Valencia is considered the biggest loser of these elections. Her vote count was far below the 12% projected by the final polls, and even less than the 3.2 million votes she secured on March 8th in the primary consultation for center and right-wing parties where she was chosen as a candidate.
Sergio Fajardo of the center party Dignidad & Compromiso (Dignity & Commitment) placed fourth with 1,007,637 votes, representing 4.25%.
Another centrist candidate, former Bogotá Mayor Claudia López, was in sixth place with 225,297 votes (0.95%), falling behind the blank vote.
Abelardo de la Espriella: law, business, and an ‘iron fist’
A 47-year-old criminal defense attorney and entrepreneur, De la Espriella is a political “outsider”. He built his wealth defending controversial clients, such as the Colombian-Venezuelan businessman Alex Saab, currently detained in the United States, and David Murcia Guzmán, the mastermind behind Colombia’s largest pyramid scheme.
In his electoral debut, he led the far-right movement Defensores de la Patria, campaigning with the goal of stopping the continued presence of the left in power.
An admirer of Donald Trump and a donor to the Republican Party, he proposes transforming Colombia into a nation of entrepreneurs, following the models of South Korea and Ireland. To achieve this, he claims he will seek technological support from American magnate Elon Musk, whom he colloquially refers to as “compadre” (godfather/close friend).
Sharing physical and ideological similarities with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, he promises to combat crime and corruption with an “iron fist”. His patriotic-leaning rhetoric includes military salutes, the defense of the traditional family, and firm opposition to abortion.
Born in Bogotá with Caribbean roots, he also holds Italian and US citizenships. Outside of the courtroom, he has consolidated the brand ‘De la Espriella Style’ with products ranging from rum to men’s clothing, and has even recorded two albums showcasing his talent as a tenor singer.
Cepeda: the continuity of the progressive project
A philosopher and specialist in International Humanitarian Law, Cepeda studied in communist Bulgaria and in Lyon, France. He describes himself as a “survivor of political genocide,” having spent his childhood in exile in Cuba and Czechoslovakia due to his family’s political activism.
His life was fundamentally changed by the 1994 assassination of his father, Senator Manuel Cepeda Vargas of the Unión Patriótica party. This state crime led him to spearhead denunciations regarding the extermination of his party and to fund the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (Movice).
His prominence in Congress grew through his debates on paramilitarism. These accusations triggered a historic and polarizing legal battle with former President Álvaro Uribe (2002 – 2010), establishing Cepeda as the main opponent of Uribismo (Uribe’s political ideology).
Cepeda possesses a strong negotiating profile, having acted as a facilitator in the 2016 peace agreement with the FARC and in the dialogues with the ELN. For this runoff election, he shares the ticket with indigenous leader Aída Quilcué, running on a platform of agrarian reform and energy transition.
Blank vote outperforms most candidates
The blank vote became one of the major surprises of Colombia’s election day, registering 406,830 votes. This figure represented 1.71% of the valid ballots with the count virtually complete.
This option individually surpassed the support received by six of the eleven candidates vying for the head of state position. Among the figures who lagged behind the blank vote were former Bogotá Mayor Claudia López and businessman Santiago Botero. EFE
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