Far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella has won the first round of Colombia's presidential election, defying polls that had long favoured his leftist rival, and will face senator Iván Cepeda in a runoff on 21 June. With nearly all ballots counted, Espriella secured 43.7% of the vote — roughly 10.3 million ballots — while Cepeda, a philosopher, human rights activist and senator since 2014, finished close behind with 40.9%. Neither candidate crossed the 50% threshold required to win outright.

The result came as a surprise: polls in the weeks before Sunday's vote had consistently shown Cepeda ahead. Espriella appears to have absorbed much of the support that had been going to conservative senator Paloma Valencia, who finished third with just 6.9% — well below her earlier polling. Valencia endorsed Espriella within minutes of the results, as did former president Álvaro Uribe, whose centre-right Democratic Centre party she represented. Total turnout reached approximately 23.3 million voters.

The announcement immediately triggered an institutional dispute. President Gustavo Petro — Colombia's first left-wing head of state, who had backed Cepeda — publicly rejected the preliminary count, claiming without evidence that around 800,000 voters had been irregularly added to the electoral roll. He said he would only accept results reviewed by the National Electoral Council in its formal scrutiny process, which can take days or weeks. Cepeda echoed those concerns, citing alleged