Latin American Economic Perspectives "Colombia: Right-wing De la Espriel..."

Research evidence excerpt

Latin American Economic Perspectives "Colombia: Right-wing De la Espriel..."

Global Research

22 June 2026ab

Latin American Economic Perspectives Economics

AmericasColombia: Right-wing De la Espriella to score

victory by a small margin in presidential runoff Andrea Casaverde

Economist

andrea.casaverde@ubs.com

+1-203-713-2515

Abelardo de la Espriella to win presidential runoff by a small margin Rafael De La Fuente

Yesterday, Colombians went to the polls to elect a new president in a second-round Economist

ballot. With 100% of votes counted, the results show that right-wing outsider Abelardo rafael.delafuente@ubs.com

+1-203-719 7127

de la Espriella won the presidential runoff, securing 49.66% of the vote compared to

48.70% for left-wing candidate Ivan Cepeda (blank votes: 1.63%). Other key figures are Roque Montero

worth highlighting: i/ the vote difference between De la Espriella and Cepeda was just Strategist

0.96 percentage points—significantly narrower than pre-election polls had suggested roque.montero@ubs.com

+1-203-719 2112

(in the range of ~5–7 pp); ii/ De la Espriella's margin of victory in absolute terms was less

than half of that observed in the 2022 election (~250k versus ~700k), which was already

a record-tight outcome by Colombian electoral standards; iii/ participation reached

63.6%, marking a record high - we haven't seen a number above 60% since 1998 - and

consistent with the upward trend in participation seen in both the congressional and the

first round elections earlier this year.

Lastly, note that at the time of writing, candidate Ivan Cepeda and President Gustavo

Petro stated that Pacto Historico would not recognize the election results until the

official vote count is finalized (a stage that follows the vote pre-count presented on