Published on 6/21/2026
Today, Sunday, Colombians will go to the polls to choose their new president for the country in a decisive round, after no candidate was unable to win an absolute majority in the first round that was held on May 31.
The electoral race is heating up between the far-right movement’s candidate, lawyer Abelardo de la Espriilla, who topped the first round by obtaining 43.7% of the votes, and the leftist movement’s candidate and the current ruling coalition, Senator Ivan Cepeda, who is close to the current president, Gustavo Petro, who came in second place in the first round with 40.9%.
The decisive round comes amid division among voters and even within the ranks of the army regarding the most likely candidate’s plans to launch a military attack against the armed groups that have returned to activity.
The two candidates present two conflicting visions for the future of the South American country, as de la Espriilla pledged to cut off the process of negotiating with armed groups and return to a more stringent security and military approach to confronting crime and violence, while Cepeda is committed to continuing Petro’s approach, especially in the files of combating poverty and negotiating with armed groups.
On September 26, 2016, a bilateral peace agreement was concluded between the government of Colombia and the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which ended a civil war that is considered the oldest and longest in Latin America, and its negotiations continued for more than four years.
Despite this, factions splintering from the FARC movement are still active after rejecting that agreement.
On June 6, outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro harshly criticized US President Donald Trump, after the latter announced his support for the right-wing candidate de la Espriilla in the runoff round of the presidential elections.
Coming from outside the traditional political establishment, de la Espriilla is a Trump supporter who campaigned behind bulletproof glass.
On the eve of the vote, the right-winger, Abelardo de la Espriilla, was slightly ahead in the opinion polls over his left-wing rival. A poll conducted by the Atlas Intel Foundation showed that he had obtained 50.9% of voting intentions, compared to 43.1% for Cepeda.
But about 5.9% of participants said that they had not yet decided on their choice, or that they intended to cancel their votes. This bloc may be decisive in a race in which the gaps are still narrow.
However, observers warn against treating the polls as a preconceived result. In the first round, Cepeda was ahead in the pre-voting polls, before de la Espriilla came first in the final result.
In the first round, 14 candidates competed in the presidential race, but none of them reached the 50% threshold necessary to decide the race, which necessitated resorting to a runoff.
About 41 million citizens of Colombia have the right to vote to choose a successor to leftist President Petro, who is prohibited by the constitution from running for a second term.
The winner is expected to officially assume the presidency on August 7.
