In the second round of Colombia's presidential election, Abelardo de la Espriella, the candidate of the right-wing conservative movement 'Defenders of the Homeland', emerged victorious.
De la Espriella defeated Ivan Sepeda, the candidate of the ruling leftist coalition 'Historic Pact', in the runoff.
According to preliminary results announced by the National Electoral Council, with 99.91% of votes counted, de la Espriella received 49.65% of the vote, while his rival Sepeda received 48.7%. The vote difference between the two candidates was determined to be 246,355.
Prior to the election, former US President Donald Trump made statements supporting the far-right Colombian candidate de la Espriella.
Colombia's current leftist President Gustavo Petro announced that he does not recognize the election results. In a statement from his account on the social media platform X, he claimed there were a series of irregularities in the vote count.
The voter turnout rate was reported to be 61.5%.
The new president will begin his term on August 7.