Colombian lawyer and political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella has clinched the presidential runoff by 250,830 votes, according to preliminary results showing the support of 49.66 percent of Colombians.
The conservative De la Espriella won 12,959,542 votes, securing victory against leftist Sen. Iván Cepeda Castro, an ally of outgoing leftist President Gustavo Petro, who won 12,708,712 votes or 48.70 percent support, with 99.99 percent of votes reported counted by the national registry office.
De la Espriella’s right-wing Defenders of the Fatherland movement ran on a promise to combat the power of drug-running guerrilla groups.
Cepeda, 63, led the charge for Colombia’s main left-wing party, the progressive and democratic socialist Pacto Historico, promising to continue Petro’s negotiations for peace deals with the guerrilla groups—an approach that has seen little progress.
First elected to public office in 2010, he has been in Congress for 16 years. He started by serving one term in the House, before being elected to the Senate for three consecutive terms.
The U.S. State Department released a statement saying that Secretary Marco Rubio had called President-Elect De La Espriella to congratulate him on his electoral victory.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the result “reflects the will of the Colombian people and their commitment to democracy.”
“The Trump Administration looks forward to working closely with his incoming administration to advance our bilateral and regional security cooperation, end illegal immigration to the United States, and strengthen the economic ties between our two countries,” he added.
The runoff was triggered on May 31 after no candidate in the presidential election secured more than 50 percent of the vote, with Petro challenging the results, claiming potential fraud.
In that vote, Cepeda trailed de la Espriella by 673,138 votes with 40.9 percent support.
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