Colombia's far-right presidential candidate De la Espriella wins first round of vote ahead of runoff
Source: The Guardian
Colombia’s far-right presidential candidate De la Espriella wins first round of vote ahead of runoff
Lawyer and Trump admirer has risen rapidly in the polls and will face Iván Cepeda in election runoff in three weeks
Tiago Rogero South America correspondent
Mon 1 Jun 2026 11.35 BST
First published on Mon 1 Jun 2026 01.24 BST
The far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won the first round of Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday and will face senator Iván Cepeda, the candidate backed by leftwing president Gustavo Petro, in the runoff.
With 100% of ballots counted, the outsider and Donald Trump admirer De la Espriella secured 43.7% of the vote – just over 10.3m votes – compared with 40.9% (about 9.6m votes) for Cepeda, a philosopher and human rights activist who has served as a senator since 2014.
The two will face each other in a runoff on 21 June.
Although polls in recent weeks had already detected De la Espriella’s rapid rise, most still showed him trailing Cepeda, who for months seemed to hold a solid lead.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/01/colombia-far-right-presidential-candidate-espriella-wins-first-round-of-vote-ahead-of-election-runoff