Colombia Elections 2026 LIVE: latest news from the presidential day
Who is Abelardo de la Espriella, the controversial Tiger who seduces the Colombian right
Who is Iván Cepeda, defender of victims and left’s candidate for the Colombian Presidency
- Who is Paloma Valencia, the Uribista heir who seeks to be Colombia’s first female president
- “The electoral material is already in all municipalities of Colombia (…) we have no news indicating the need to move any polling station or voting post during tomorrow’s day,” said the national registrar, Hernán Penagos.
- Left-wing candidate invites businessmen and opponents to dialogue
- Colombian left-wing senator Iván Cepeda , presidential candidate of the Historic Pact, party of President Gustavo Petro, invited businessmen and opponents this Saturday to a national dialogue, on the eve of the first round of Sunday’s elections for which he is the favorite in the polls. “I especially want to express to the country’s businessmen all my willingness to share with them our proposal, to constantly seek dialogue, agreement, and the search for accords that Colombia needs,” Cepeda said in a message to the country.
Colombia ready to go to the polls and vote for the successor of President Gustavo Petro | Photo: EFE
A worker prepares a voting center in Bogotá, May 29, 2026, before the weekend presidential elections | Photo: Sergio Acero / AFP
Colombian authorities finalize preparations for the first round of Sunday’s presidential elections in which the successor to the current president, Gustavo Petro, will be chosen, and for which 41,421,973 citizens are eligible to vote, including residents abroad | Photo: EFE/ Carlos Ortega
People install ballot boxes at the Corferias fairgrounds this Saturday, in Bogotá (Colombia) | Photo: EFE/ Carlos Ortega
- Important information about the elections in Colombia
Polling stations will open at 8 am and close at 4 pm local time. It is estimated that the first official results will be announced from 6:30 pm local time.
If one of the candidates obtains more than 50% of the votes in this round, they will automatically become the president-elect. Otherwise, a second round will be held on Sunday, June 21.
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Iván Cepeda, who leads the electoral polls, has as main rivals the lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, from the Defenders of the Homeland movement, and the Uribista senator Paloma Valencia, from the right-wing Democratic Center party. Both are in second and third place in electoral preferences, respectively.
Although thirteen candidates appear on the ballot, only eleven remain in the race because Luis Gilberto Murillo and Carlos Caicedo, both from the left, withdrew in recent weeks. Both joined the candidacy of Senator Iván Cepeda.
Across the South American country, 118,346 polling stations were installed in 13,489 locations, of which 6,010 are in urban areas and 7,479 in rural areas, whose surveillance and security will be handled by about 248,000 members of the Military Forces and Police, reports EFE.
According to the Registry, of the 40,007,312 Colombians eligible to vote this Sunday in the country, 20.5 million are women and 19.4 million are men.
According to official information from Colombian electoral authorities, 41,421,973 citizens are eligible to vote, including those residing abroad. In fact, voting for Colombians abroad began last Monday.
Colombia returns to the polls this Sunday, May 31, for the presidential elections in which the successor to the current leader, Gustavo Petro, will be chosen. Follow all the incidents and results of the presidential contest in this South American country in this note from El Comercio.
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