De la Espriella, Cepeda advance to runoff in Colombia's presidential election

Colombia's Abelardo de la Espriella, an independent candidate associated with the far-right Defenders of the Homeland movement, and Ivan Cepeda of the ruling left-wing Historic Pact coalition, advanced to the presidential runoff after emerging as the top two candidates in Sunday's first-round vote, according to preliminary results released by the National Civil Registry.

With 97.58% of the ballots counted, de la Espriella received 43.77% of the vote, while Cepeda garnered 40.88%, according to the preliminary results. Paloma Valencia, representing the right-wing Democratic Center party, ranked third with 6.91%.

Colombians voted on Sunday to elect a president and vice president for the 2026-2030 term. More than 41.4 million registered voters were eligible to cast ballots at around 13,000 polling stations across the country. Polls opened at 8 a.m. (1300 GMT) and closed at 4 p.m.

Under the country's electoral system, a candidate must win more than 50% of the vote in the first round to be elected outright. As no candidate crossed that threshold, de la Espriella and Cepeda will face each other in a runoff on June 21. The winner will take office on August 7.