Colombians Vote In Runoff Between Abelardo De La Espriella And Iván Cepeda

Colombians voted in a presidential runoff expected to trigger a dramatic shift in the country’s decades-long armed conflict, with the race set to pit the Trump-admiring far-right lawyer and millionaire businessman Abelardo de la Espriella against Iván Cepeda, Petro’s chosen successor and the main architect of “total peace”.

“Ballot counting began in Colombia at the end of the presidential runoff on Sunday, pitting an anti-system lawyer who favors a hardline approach against an ally of the country's first leftist government in history, a decisive vote in the face of the resurgence of violence by armed groups”

Boursorama

The Guardian reported that polls show De la Espriella has vowed to abandon President Gustavo Petro’s “total peace” plan of negotiating the disarmament of all criminal organisations and instead return to full-scale military confrontation with armed groups.

Boursorama

At the opening of polling stations, Petro displayed his ballot showing a vote for Cepeda and urged Colombians to “vote, whatever their choice,” while rejecting “interference by foreign leaders” in a reference to Donald Trump’s endorsement of De la Espriella and description of Cepeda as a “radical left Marxist”.

The Guardian said the official scrutiny process is expected to take about two more days after polls close at 4pm local time, and noted that historically the difference between preliminary count and official scrutiny in Colombian elections has been less than 1%.

Boursorama said about 41 million voters were called to go to the polling stations, which closed at 4:00 PM (9:00 PM GMT), with provisional results expected in the coming hours.

The Guardian described how Petro said he would not accept the preliminary vote count released by the National Civil Registry and would only recognise the outcome of the official scrutiny process expected to take about two more days.

In the same account, Petro’s stance was tied to his allegation of fraud in the preliminary count three weeks earlier without presenting evidence, which the article said drew widespread criticism from election experts.

El Mundo

Boursorama framed the runoff as a contest between an anti-system lawyer backed by U.S. President Donald Trump and a senator who benefits from the popularity of Gustavo Petro, while describing De la Espriella as a billionaire who runs as an outsider and as a patriot.

It also quoted De la Espriella’s hardline posture, saying he repeats his desire to 'defend Colombia by reason or by force', and contrasted it with Cepeda’s defense of victims of Colombia’s six-decade-old armed conflict.

The Washington Post added a broader regional context, saying President Donald Trump has gotten exactly what he wanted in one Latin American election after another, with right-wing, pro-Trump candidates defeating leftists across the region.

The Guardian said the election is expected to deliver another victory for a far-right candidate advocating an iron-fist approach to crime, after examples of Keiko Fujimori in Peru and José Antonio Kast in Chile.

It also reported that De la Espriella promised that, if elected, he would restore state control over territories dominated by criminal groups within 90 days, while later appearing to backtrack by telling Radio Caracol: “I never said I would solve the security problem in 90 days.”

Boursorama described De la Espriella’s campaign as promising “mega-prisons” where inmates would be fed 'bread and water', and said he would cut the state apparatus by 40%.

In the same Boursorama account, Iván Cepeda warned that his country would not become a 'colony' of the United States, tying the runoff to relations with Washington.

Folha de S.Paulo said polls closed at 4:00 p.m. local time (6:00 p.m. in Brazil) on Sunday (21) and that preliminary results were expected to be announced overnight, with the vote marked by polarization that even spilled into national symbols like the colors of the flag and the Colombian national team jersey.