Ivan Cepeda conceded defeat in the Colombian election, he sealed the victory for the right | Election News

Presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda accepted the victory of his opponent Abelardo de la Espriella.

Bogota, Colombia – Colombian presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda officially conceded defeat to rightist Abelardo de la Espriella in the morning following a very fast race.

While Cepeda recognized the legitimacy of Sunday’s preliminary results, it provided and Espriella margin of less than 1 percent, he said he would wait for the final, legally binding vote, known as a survey, before conceding defeat.

“I have decided to accept the results of this process, which show that Abelardo de la Espriella is the new President of the Republic,” Cepeda said in a speech on Wednesday.

Although the process of verifying the vote has not been fully completed, the National Registry, which oversees elections, said yesterday that Sunday’s initial vote was “99.997 percent” accurate after being reviewed by municipal judges. The vote must now be confirmed in the departments and states.

There was doubt among the Cepeda camp about the legitimacy of the vote, President Gustavo Petro – who was heavily involved in the leftist leader’s campaign – publicly stated that there was fraud and foreign interference before and after the election.

“Election tampering has been confirmed; I cannot say with certainty that the revelations guarantee the election victory (for Cepeda), but it is true,” wrote Petro on Monday.

For months, the president has been warning about the insecurity of the vote counting software and arguing with the National Registry.

Distrust of presidents is highly dependent 2022 general electionwhile his Historic Pact coalition also received nearly half a million votes following a tally of votes.

The recent recall of the vote led Petro and many Cepedistas (Cepeda supporters) to believe that the nearly 250,000 votes between Cepeda and de la Espriella on Sunday could be annulled.

But the National Registry recorded an accurate count of the early March elections and the first round of the presidential race on May 31.

Petro also said that Washington’s interference in the election affected the final results because President Donald Trump endorsed Abelardo, breaking tradition.

“The direct intervention of President Donald Trump is hindering the elections in Colombia,” Petro wrote in an X post yesterday.

But Cepeda’s admission appears to put distance between him and the president, who founded the Historic Pact group.

“This shows that Petro and Cepeda were dividing.” Although Petro’s time is coming to an end, Cepeda will likely be the leader of the opposition,” said Sergio Guzman, head of the Colombia Risk Analysis political risk organization.

Cepeda, who is now expected to lead the Historic Pact party in the Senate, expressed a word of reconciliation in his speech this morning: “I am doing this as a democratic duty, to contribute to unity, peace and dialogue among the Colombian people.”