politics
Colombians Vote in Presidential First Round With No Candidate Securing Majority
No candidate reached an outright majority in the first round of Colombia's presidential election held May 31, 2026. A runoff between the top two candidates is projected for June 21.
Jun 1, 3:45 PM·3m read3 sources
Petro failureRight-wing threa
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Colombians voted in the first round of their presidential election on May 31, 2026. No candidate secured an outright majority, triggering a runoff between the top two finishers under Colombian election rules. Officials have not yet announced a date for any potential second round.
Iván Cepeda, senator for the Historic Pact party and the ruling party's candidate, is the former leader of the Movement for Victims of State Crimes and a former peace negotiator involved in National Liberation Army guerrilla peace dialogues. Abelardo de la Espriella, the candidate for Defensores de la Patria, is a conservative outsider and criminal lawyer who describes himself as not being a politician.
Paloma Valencia, a senator and candidate from former President Álvaro Uribe's center-right party Centro Democrático, also competed.
The civil society Electoral Observation Mission reported 565 acts of political violence since January 2025. Those incidents included the assassination of a presidential hopeful, kidnappings, attacks targeting candidates and campaign staff, vandalism of campaign offices, and death threats.
No publicly released evidence in the sources has attributed specific perpetrators to the overall tally or detailed trends during the Petro administration.
De la Espriella advanced ahead of other candidates by focusing on promises to increase enforcement against criminal organizations. He would end peace negotiations and tackle narcotrafficking and organized crime with military force. He supports fracking, new oil contracts, and cutting taxes for the private sector.
Both de la Espriella and Valencia have proposed aligning with the Trump administration's anti-narcotics strategy and resuming aerial fumigation of coca crops halted by the Petro administration.
Valencia proposes a Plan 30-30 for security that would recruit 30,000 new members each to the military and police and increase the defense budget to 4 percent of Colombia's GDP. She would end the peace dialogues, militarize insecure areas, and resume aerial fumigation. She proposed opening a 22,000-capacity penitentiary with 19,000 spots and restricting social protests.
