Right-wing hardliner Abelardo de la Espriella wins Colombian presidency, preliminary results show

The runoff result

With roughly 90% of ballots counted, de la Espriella led with between 49.7% and 50.5% of the vote, depending on the source, while Cepeda trailed at 48.25% to 48.7%. The national registry office put the gap at about 427,000 votes. Turnout figures were not immediately available, though 41 million citizens were eligible to vote and 24 million had cast ballots in the first round three weeks earlier.

“Today is the most important ballot in Colombia's history.”

De la Espriella, a 47-year-old lawyer and businessman who also holds US citizenship, had surprised observers by topping the first round with 43.7% to Cepeda's 40.9%. Cepeda and incumbent president Gustavo Petro initially alleged irregularities involving hundreds of thousands of votes but later accepted the result.

Who is Abelardo de la Espriella

De la Espriella campaigned as a crime-fighter, pledging to wage war on cartels and guerrilla groups with military force. He told AFP he would order a 90-day offensive involving bombings and the fumigation of coca plantations, and would seek support from the United States and Israel. Colombia is the world's largest cocaine producer.

“I will have the military carry out a 90-day offensive with bombings and coca-plant fumigation.”

His style has drawn comparisons to El Salvador's right-wing president Nayib Bukele. De la Espriella has never held political office and openly backs US president Donald Trump.

Cepeda and the left

Iván Cepeda, a 63-year-old senator from the Historic Pact party led by Petro, promised to expand social reforms and govern for all Colombians. He had the backing of progressives and the poor, but could not overcome the rightward shift that has recently brought conservative leaders to power in Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Honduras.

“When we win, we are going to govern for the whole country and not just for one sector.”

Petro, Colombia's first leftist president, was constitutionally barred from seeking a second term. His four-year effort to negotiate peace with armed groups yielded no major new accords.

A country scarred by violence

The election unfolded against a backdrop of persistent armed conflict. A 2016 peace deal with the FARC guerrilla group formally ended decades of war, but dissident factions remain active and are blamed for attacks on former rebels and social leaders. Authorities recorded 14,780 homicides in 2025, the highest figure since at least 2015, most of them linked to clashes among illegal armed groups.

The campaign itself was marred by violence, including car-bomb and drone attacks. In June 2025, right-wing presidential candidate Miguel Uribe was assassinated.

What comes next

The winner is due to take office on 7 August. De la Espriella's pledges of aerial strikes and deregulation signal a sharp break from Petro's negotiation-focused approach, and his outreach to Washington and Jerusalem suggests a realignment of Colombia's foreign partnerships.