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The Colombian president Gustavo Petro refused this Sunday to acknowledge the preliminary results of the runoff election that declare the far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella as the winner, and denounced "many irregularities" in the voting, demanding to wait for the official count before declaring any president.
With 98.91% of the polling stations counted, De la Espriella, from the Defensores de la Patria movement, accumulated 12,921,702 votes (49.65%), compared to the 12,673,392 votes (48.70%) of the official candidate Iván Cepeda, from the Pacto Histórico. The difference between the two was just 1.07 percentage points, with neither surpassing the 50% threshold.
"Polling stations lacking signatures from the jurors must be contested immediately. We still cannot know who the president is, and there are many irregularities," Petro wrote on his X account.
The official accused the National Registry of uploading electoral forms—specifically, the E-14 records—without the signatures of the voting jurors, which he described as a serious irregularity that invalidates those polling stations.
"The nearly tied vote, with no one reaching 50%, requires waiting for the official counts. In the latest pre-count report, it's 49% versus 48," Petro added, emphasizing that it is the official tally, not the pre-count, that is the legal mechanism to determine the winner.
In a second message posted on X, the president was more direct: "No one can be proclaimed president. It is the counting that determines who the president is. I obey the judges. Calm among the citizens."
Petro also denounced what he called "foreign interference," referring to the public support that De la Espriella received from the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the Argentine leader, Javier Milei. Trump promised "full support" from Washington to Colombia if De la Espriella won the runoff, while Milei celebrated his advance as part of a regional shift against the "socialist model."
It is not the first time that Petro has questioned the electoral results. After the first round on May 31, in which De la Espriella came in first with 43.74% compared to Cepeda's 40.90%, the president had already accused the private firm responsible for the electoral software of manipulation.
The international observation missions present on this Sunday dismissed the accusations of fraud. The Organization of American States described the voting as "civic, peaceful, and participatory," while the European Union delegation stated that "there has been no fraud" in the process.
Despite the tension, Petro called for calm and emphasized the need to build "a national agreement" to "preserve the homeland and peace in the years to come," acknowledging that the outcome reflects "a country divided in half."
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