Colombians Vote in First Round of Presidential Election as Iván Cepeda Leads Polls

Millions of Colombians will vote on Sunday in a presidential election that polls indicate will advance to a June 21 runoff between the top two candidates. No candidate is expected to receive the 50 percent required to win outright in the first round. Fourteen candidates appear on the ballot.

Senator Iván Cepeda of the ruling Pacto Histórico party leads the AtlasIntel survey published last week. 3 percent. Moderate candidate and former Medellín mayor Sergio Fajardo trails the three frontrunners.

The same AtlasIntel survey found that Valencia, de la Espriella, and Fajardo would each defeat Cepeda in a runoff. Valencia is backed by former President Álvaro Uribe. De la Espriella has positioned himself as an outsider modeled on President Trump and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.

Human rights organizations documented more than 50 massacres in Colombia this year. Clashes between warring guerrilla factions this week left around 50 people dead. The campaign has included the assassination of a presidential candidate, bombings, kidnappings, and the killing of dozens of local political leaders.

Security ranks as the second-highest voter concern after healthcare. De la Espriella held his closing campaign rally in Medellín on May 24 behind bulletproof glass. He proposes building 10 maximum-security private megaprisons where inmates would work for their meals, resuming aerial fumigation of coca fields with glyphosate, and ending negotiations with drug traffickers.

Valencia held her final rally in Bogotá the same day and has called for more ground troops, drone surveillance, and renewed fumigation. Cepeda made a press statement in Bogotá on May 28. He continues to promote negotiations with guerrillas and cartels.

Mejía called Valencia’s stance “balanced,” with a soft hand on coca farmers and a strong hand on trafficking organizations. Last year Colombia’s most powerful drug lord threatened violence ahead of this year’s vote. President Trump formally determined in 2025 that Colombia had failed demonstrably in its counternarcotics commitments.

The Trump administration’s operations in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed over 200 alleged smugglers. President Trump and former President Gustavo Petro met at the White House in February. Gustavo Petro voted in legislative elections for the 2026-2030 term in Bogotá on March 8, 2026.