Far-right millionaire Abelardo de la Espriella wins Colombia’s presidential runoff

The right-wing Abelardo de la Espriella, an admirer of Donald Trump, came top in the vote, followed closely by the left-wing senator Iván Cepeda, an ally of the current president Gustavo Petro. The campaign was plagued with violence, including drone strikes, kidnappings, homicides and the assassination of a presidential candidate at a rally last year.Both men offer differing visions for how to solve Colombia's violent internal armed conflict that has lasted for decades but has resurged in recent years.On Sunday, neither candidate achieved more than 50% of the vote to win outright.While polls tipped Cepeda to finish ahead of his right-wing challenger, official results showed that he trailed, with 41% of votes compared to De La Espriella's 43.7%, with almost all ballots counted.After topping the vote, De La Espriella said in the runoff he would "defeat tyranny, absolutism", calling the result a "triumph for those of us who have never experienced living off the state's teat".Meanwhile, Cepeda said that he would not comment until the count was verified by judges. Paloma Valencia, the moderate conservative who finished in third place on less than 7%, has since endorsed De La Espriella.President Petro, who endorsed Cepeda, said he did not "accept the preliminary count results" and that he would wait for final results reviewed by judges. He alleged irregularities in the vote, including claiming that "hundreds of thousands of votes were added" - without providing any evidence.Electoral authorities said the voting day had proceeded "normally and safely".EPAArmed guards were stationed at some polling centres across Colombia.Cepeda was actively involved in the peace talks that led to a historic deal in 2016 between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla group, which led to the disarmament of thousands of rebel fighters.He is often described as an architect of the "total peace" strategy of President Petro, Colombia first left-wing president, which prioritises dialogue and negotiations with armed groups during ceasefires, over military intervention.Under President Petro's presidency, cocaine production hit a record high, membership of armed groups grew, and violence on the border surged to its worst level in years, displacing tens of thousands of people. This has led his critics and many security analysts to denounce "total peace" as a failed strategy, though Petro has argued his government has seized the largest amount of drugs in history.The economy has grown, and Petro increased the minimum wage significantly, though about one in three Colombians still live in poverty.Cepeda has pledged economic reforms if elected, including expanding welfare benefits and handing land to victims of internal conflict.De La Espriella is a lawyer and businessman who dubs himself "El Tigre", the tiger. He has heavily criticised Petro's negotiations with armed groups and advocated a tough military crackdown on crime, including closer co-operation with the United States, bombing cartels with US support, more powers for the military and possible mass trials.He has pledged to build 10 mega-prisons in the jungle in the style of El Salvador's hardline right-wing President Nayib Bukele who, many commentators have observed, De La Espriella has modelled his beard as well as some of his policies on. He has also said he would drastically shrink the state.De La Espriella has attracted controversy over some of his past clients: he was the lawyer to Alex Saab, a close ally of the US-ousted Venezuelan leader Nic

BREAKING, The left-wing senator and far-right newcomer will face each other in a runoff on June 21, with security a top issue.Far-right outsider Abelardo de la Espriella will face left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda in the runoff for Colombia’s presidential election next month.As polls closed on Sunday, the two candidates surged ahead in the vote tally, quickly extinguishing the hopes of right-wing Senator Paloma Valencia, a former frontrunner.As of Sunday afternoon, with 99 percent of the votes tallied, de la Espriella took the lead, with 43 percent of the ballots cast in his favour.Cepeda trailed him by more than 600,000 votes, earning 40 percent of the ballots.Neither candidate breached the 50-percent threshold needed to avoid a head-to-head match-up on June 21. But the results are likely to buoy de la Espriella’s campaign going into the final round.Cepeda had consistently topped public opinion polls in the final weeks before voting. A May 24 poll from the National Consulting Centre (CNC), for instance, showed him with more than 33 percent support, ahead of de la Espriella’s 30.9 percent.But questions about security were at the forefront of voters’ concerns going into Sunday’s election.De la Espriella, a businessman who has never held elected office, leaned heavily into fears of crime as he launched an outsider campaign, similar in the style to the dark-horse bid of Argentinian President Javier Milei.By contrast, Cepeda is a well-known quantity in Colombian politics. His father was a senator too, as well as a leader in Colombia’s Communist Party, before he was assassinated in 1994, in what was widely considered to be an act of political violence.Cepeda himself has served as a senator since 2014. Before that, he served in the Chamber of Deputies, representing the capital Bogota.During his political career, he became embroiled in a long-running legal dispute with former right-wing President Alvaro Uribe, whom he accused of complicity with right-wing paramilitaries.Uribe initially sued Cepeda for defamation, but in a dramatic twist, the Supreme Court dismissed the charge and instead investigated Uribe for witness tampering.While Uribe was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, an appeals court ultimately struck down the verdict, citing procedural errors, including insufficient evidence.