The electoral polls in Colombia closed this Sunday (21) at around 6 pm (Brasília time), starting the counting of votes in the second round of the presidential race between the progressive Iván Cepeda and the conservative Aberlado de la Espriella. According to data from the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, la Espriella leads the investigation.
The preliminary count of votes showed that right-wing lawyer and businessman Abelardo de la Espriella won the country’s presidential election.
According to data released by the country’s electoral authorities, De la Espriella beat Senator Iván Cepeda by less than 250,000 votes. The latest update indicates 12,950,642 votes for Espriella, against 12,702,592 for the leftist Cepeda, an ally of the current Colombian president, Gustavo Petro.
Informational function
In Colombia, the vote count has an informative function, as in the following days it will be verified during the count in which the winner of the election will be declared.
The director of the National Registration Office, Hernán Penagos, highlighted the high voter participation in the election, in a statement during the closing of the polls.
According to him, security measures were implemented like “in no other election in the history of Colombia”, with international audits, party auditors, facial biometrics and real-time publication of electoral records.
Antagonistic models
The candidates in the second round represent two antagonistic models. Cepeda, senator and ally of President Gustavo Petro, wants to continue the current government’s agenda, especially social reforms, and leave the door open for dialogue with armed groups.
De la Espriella, supported by US President Donald Trump, promises to make a change and apply a “tough hand” against illegal immigrants, as well as supporting businesspeople.
The elections were held amid Colombians’ concern about the violence carried out by illegal armed groups and President Petro’s successive warnings about possible fraud, of which he provided no evidence. Today, inspectors arrested three people for prohibited conduct in different regions of the country, trying to intimidate, replace voters or vandalize ballot boxes.
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Even so, international bodies highlighted confidence in the Colombian electoral system. The deputy head of the European Union Observation Mission, Antonio de Gabriel, highlighted the “robustness” of the system, which has guarantees of transparency and traceability, and said that the electoral day passed “without incident, with high participation” and fluid voting.
