Bogotá, Colombia – President Gustavo Petro rejected the results of first-round presidential elections on Sunday, alleging irregularities.
Hard-right populist Abelardo de la Espriella defied pollsters’ predictions to beat the candidate representing Petro’s leftist Historic Pact party, Iván Cepeda, although neither surpassed the 50% required to win outright.
“The so-called count being transmitted is not legally binding. Its data is not considered official. As president, I do not accept the results of the preliminary count,” wrote Petro on X shortly after the election was called.
In Colombia, the “pre-conteo”, or preliminary count, is based on officials tallying the ballot sheets and entering them into an online software. But the “escrutinio”, or scrutinized results, usually take several days to be announced and are ratified by judges.
According to the Registrar’s Office, which is responsible for overseeing the voting process, the pre-count is “for informational purposes only” and has “no legal standing.”
But de la Espriella received nearly 700,000 more votes than Cepeda, a gap which is very unlikely to be closed after the scrutiny.
Delivering a speech after the results were released, Cepeda said he would not address the elections until the scrutinized count came out.
“Only once the vote-counting committees have fully, clearly, and thoroughly clarified this matter will we comment on tonight’s results,” the senator told a crowd of supporters at the Hotel Tequendama in central Bogotá.
He also referred to historic efforts by Colombia’s traditional parties and institutions to repress the leftist movement embodied by the Historic Pact: “Our life has been a constant struggle.”
A crowd of Cepeda voters gathered nearby to watch the speech on a large screen, with some chanting the Spanish anti-fascist slogan “No Pasarán”. One pair held a sign reading “Fraud!”.
Petro has repeatedly warned that the elections may be stolen, part of a long-running dispute with Thomas Greg & Sons, a multinational company responsible for electoral logistics.
In 2022, the Historic Pact gained some 500,000 votes in legislative elections following the scrutiny.
Regardless of the final results of the election, Cepeda and de la Espriella are set to face off in a second round on June 21.
Featured image description: President Gustavo Petro at a cabinet meeting, October 22, 2025.
Featured image credit: @InfoPresidencia via X.
