Colombia closes polls in presidential election runoff, begins vote count

Polling stations across Colombia closed Sunday evening, concluding the second round of voting to elect the nation's next president. The tightly contested race was between far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella and leftist Iván Cepeda.

Election officials began the vote count immediately after polls shut at 4 p.m. local time. The National Registry, which oversees the elections, anticipated releasing consolidated preliminary results before 6 p.m. Hernán Penagos, the national registrar, praised the election officials and noted the presence of over 350,000 witnesses from both political campaigns, who were positioned at the 122,000 polling stations to verify the tally.

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At this moment, they are counting the votes and filling out each of the electoral records by hand in the presence of more than 350,000 witnesses from the two political campaigns who will be able to verify the result at each of the 122,000 polling stations.

The election proceeded without significant incidents of violence, and authorities urged citizens to respect the outcome. Earlier in the day, outgoing President Gustavo Petro encouraged citizens to vote despite any obstacles, emphasizing that he would abide by the results certified by the judiciary, not the preliminary counts.

Pre-election polls indicated De la Espriella, founder of the Defensores de la Patria movement and supported by former U.S. President Donald Trump, held a lead over Cepeda of the Pacto Histórico party, which is the same party as Petro.

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I will obey the judges as the law and the Constitution dictate. Anything before the judges' decision is information, but what is binding is the judge.