According to preliminary results with 97.58% of polling stations reporting, De la Espriella leads the race with 10,118,924 votes, representing 43.77% of the total vote. Cepeda follows with 9,451,732 votes, equivalent to 40.88%.
Profiles of both candidates:
Who Is Abelardo de la Espriella, the Lawyer Turned Into a Key Figure of Colombia’s Right Wing?
Iván Cepeda, the Face of Colombia’s Left Seeking the Presidency
The figures highlight a significantly different electoral landscape from that of four years ago. In the first round of the 2022 presidential election, Petro received 8,542,020 votes, or 40.3% of the total vote, before going on to win the presidency in the runoff.
De la Espriella has surpassed Petro’s 2022 first-round performance by 1,576,904 votes and improved on his vote share by 3.47 percentage points, rising from 40.3% to 43.77%.
Cepeda has also outperformed Petro’s first-round result. The left-wing candidate has received 909,712 more votes than Petro did in 2022 and currently holds 40.88% of the vote, slightly above the 40.3% obtained by the current president during his first-round campaign four years ago.
The gap between the two leading contenders currently stands at 667,192 votes. Although De la Espriella maintains the lead, neither candidate has reached the threshold of 50% plus one vote required to win outright.
If the trend holds once the vote count is finalized, Colombia will head to a presidential runoff election.
The results also reveal a strong concentration of support around the two frontrunners. Together, De la Espriella and Cepeda account for more than 84% of all votes cast, leaving the remaining candidates far behind in the race for the presidency.
