The far-right Abelardo de la Espriella called this Sunday, June 21, for national unity and promised to govern for all Colombians after winning by a narrow margin of less than one percentage point over the leftist Iván Cepeda in the closest presidential elections in recent history, although the final result will depend on the official scrutiny.
With 99.99% of the tables informed in the preliminary count of the National Registry, the entity that organizes the elections, De la Espriella, of the Defenders of the Homeland movement, obtained 12 million 959 thousand 542 votes (49.66%), compared to the 12 million 708 thousand 712 votes (48.70%) of Cepeda, of the Historical Pact, the president’s party Colombian Gustavo Petro.
The difference, of only 250,830 votes, equivalent to 0.96 percentage points, is much lower than what the polls predicted and less than half of the more than 673,138 ballots (2.84%) with which the far-right won in the first round.
“From this moment on, the electoral campaign, divisions and political confrontations end,” said De la Espriella before thousands of followers gathered in front of the Ventana al Mundo monument in Barranquilla, where he gave his first speech after receiving the results and claimed his victory as the beginning of a new stage for the country.
The 47-year-old lawyer and businessman assured that there will be no “winners or losers” and promised to exercise the Presidency starting next August 7 as a symbol of national unity: “I will be the president of all Colombians.”
“From that feeling of believing that we are beginning a new era, a new stage, I tell you: I am a man trained in the laws, respectful of the branches of power, Congress and the high courts. Mine will be an absolutely democratic Government and guarantor of freedom and institutionality,” said De la Espriella.
Record participation of 63.59%
The day was marked by historic participation, with more than 26.3 million citizens who went to the polls, representing 63.59% of the electoral roll, an unprecedented figure in a presidential second round in Colombia.
However, the closing of the vote did not completely dissipate the political tension accumulated during three weeks of campaign marked by cross accusations, allegations of corruption, questions about the electoral system and warnings about possible post-election protests.
Cepeda acknowledged the preliminary results released by the electoral authority, but announced that his campaign will challenge 33,000 voting stations during the count.
“We have reached this last instance with the narrowest difference in votes recorded in any second round election in Colombian electoral history,” said the Historic Pact candidate.
For his part, President Petro, who until now has not accepted the result of the first round on May 31, indicated that he will accept the final result of the second once the corresponding legal verifications are completed.
Petro also left open the possibility of recognizing a victory for De la Espriella if confirmed by the scrutiny, although he denounced alleged irregularities and asked his followers to accompany the review of the minutes.
“If Abelardo is really, after the scrutiny, the new president, he will make a serious mistake by rolling back the reforms achieved and those that were in process,” Petro wrote in his X account.
Waiting for scrutiny
For his part, the national registrar, Hernán Penagos, called for calm and recalled that the official result will emerge from the scrutiny carried out by judges and notaries, a process that began immediately after the polls closed and that must conclude this week.
While in Bogotá Cepeda’s supporters closely followed the electoral bulletins and maintained the hope that the vote would reduce the difference, in Barranquilla and other cities thousands of De la Espriella’s followers celebrated in caravans and mass gatherings.
With the country practically divided into two halves and the scrutiny still ahead, Colombia closed a historic day in which participation reached record levels and in which the call for reconciliation coexisted with the doubts and complaints derived from an election defined by less than one percentage point.