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Colombian close helping campaigner Abelardo De La Espriella looked poised to win the country’s Sunday (June 21, 2026) statesmanlike race, notching conscionable nether 50% of the vote, with astir 95% of ballot boxes counted, information from the country’s nationalist registry bureau showed.
His rival, the leftist Ivan Cepeda, was immoderate 368,000 votes down with 48.4%. De La Espriella, 47, has projected a tough crackdown connected crime, arsenic good arsenic the extremity to bid talks with equipped groups and a boost to Colombia’s lipid and state sector.
Mr. Cepeda, 63, has vowed to proceed the policies of President Gustavo Petro, a erstwhile rebel and the country’s first leftist president, which see authorities pension payments for the poor, union-backed labour reforms, bid talks with equipped groups that person fought the authorities for decades and a moratorium connected caller lipid projects.
Mr. De La Espriella blames Mr. Petro for the country’s economical and information woes and has vowed to little taxes and trim the size of the authorities by up to 40%, but has said helium volition preserve Mr. Petro’s 23% summation successful the minimum wage, on with different fashionable societal measures.
Whoever wins volition grapple with precocious nationalist indebtedness and a divided Congress, which could stymie betterment proposals.
Some 4,00,000 voters turned successful blank ballots, usually seen arsenic a protestation vote.
