Colombia's far-right wins the first round, and the left questions the computing system

Abelardo de la Espriella , the ultra-right-wing lawyer of the Defensores de la Patria (Defenders of the Homeland) movement, has overtaken the left in the first round of the Colombian presidency, which will be held on 21 June, and Esrpiella will face Ivan Cepedaof the Pacto Historico (Historical Pact), whose result in the first round has cast doubt.

According to the National Electoral Registry, with 99.99% of the polling stations counted, De la Espriella, nicknamed 'the Tiger', has won10,361,413 votes (43.74%) , while Cepedahas won 9,688,245 votes (40.9%) ; 673,168 votes, therefore, in favour of the right.

However, since neither of them has won half plus one of the votes needed to win the first round, the two main candidates, De la Espriella and Cepeda, will compete in the second round on June 21.

Democratic Center candidate Paloma Valencia was third with 1.6 million votes.

Fourth place was the centrist Sergio Fajardo (Dignity & Commitment, Dignity and Commitment), with one million votes (4.26%).

The former mayor of Bogotá, Claudia López, was fifth with 225,517 votes (0.95%).

In this first round the turnout was 57.88%, the highest since the entry into force of the 1991 Constitution; Colombia is a fairly abstentionist country, where voting is not mandatory and the turnout is usually around 50%.

Gustavo Petro: "As president, I don't accept the budget results"

Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro, has rejected these first results, not for nothing, which have been calling into question the transparency of the electoral system for months, and has made it clear that these results are informative and have no legal value, and are based on software that has errors in the electoral roll .

He explained that "there aretwo censuses at this time une, officerand software (...) and in that there are 800,000 more people "; he added that some of the contested tables show that" hundreds of thousands of votes have been added ", although he has not provided evidence of this assertion.

It therefore confirms that the only legally valid results shall be determined by the judges of the Republic in the count, where the minutes shall be reviewed and the result of the elections officially fixed.

Cepeda also has doubts: "There is an A0gapthat we want to check on the electoral roll, and it is not just any gap: we are talking about 885,000 people, "Cepeda told his supporters in Bogotá, without giving details of the origin of that figure.

Movements facing the second round

Following Sunday's votes, Senator Valencia has rushed to announce her support for De la Espriella's second round.

However, Juan Daniel Oviedo, a member of Valencia's vice president formula, has pointed out that the votes they expected to receive from much of the right "have disappeared" from De la Espriella's campaign, which he described as "dirty, macho, homophobic."

Unlike Valencia, Oviedo (who does not hide his homosexuality) will announce his position on the second round on June 3 as a "serious decision."

Candidate Fajardo, for his part, has claimed that the million votes he won in the first round are "important" in determining the rivalry between De la Espriella and Cepeda.

Ex-Senator Roy Barreras, 14, received only 108 votes (0.05%) and ranked penultimate among 11 candidates.