APTOPIX Colombia Election

Presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Defenders of the Motherland movement salutes after voting during the presidential election in Barranquilla, Colombia, Sunday, May 31, 2026.

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Pro-Trump candidate pulls ahead in Colombia presidential vote as ruling party sows doubt in results

Pro-Trump candidate pulls ahead in Colombia presidential vote as ruling party sows doubt in results

Tough-on-crime outsider Aberaldo de la Espriella took the lead in Colombia’s presidential race in the first round of voting Sunday night, setting up a runoff with Iván Cepeda, an ally of Colombia’s outgoing President Gustavo Petro who questioned the results of the election. With no candidate taking an outright majority of Sunday's vote, the election will head to a second round in June. But Cepeda and Petro sowed doubt in the results of the first round, claiming without evidence that hundreds of thousands of votes were manipulated and that foreign actors manipulated the results of the election. Cepeda said he was waiting for electoral authorities to scrutinize the results before accepting the election.