\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Colombia\u2019s electoral authorities on Wednesday formally declared Abelardo de la Espriella president-elect after completing the official vote count, confirming his narrow victory in Sunday\u2019s runoff election.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is due to take office on August 7.<\/p>\n
Left-wing candidate Iv\u00e1n Cepeda, backed by outgoing President Gustavo Petro, acknowledged the far-right candidate\u2019s victory hours before the official declaration, though he continued to question the integrity of the election.<\/p>\n
The National Electoral Council certified De la Espriella as president and Jos\u00e9 Manuel Restrepo as vice president after tallying votes from all of Colombia\u2019s departments and citizens living abroad. The pair will govern through 2030.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Colombian people have won. We defeated fear, threats and those who believed they could take away Colombia\u2019s future,\u201d De la Espriella wrote on X after the announcement.<\/p>\n
The political newcomer also pledged to govern with \u201cunity and commitment\u201d in pursuit of what he called a \u201cMiracle Homeland.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final count showed lawyer De la Espriella winning by just over 250,000 votes \u2014 less than one percentage point \u2014 underscoring the deep polarization that marked the campaign.<\/p>\n
According to electoral authorities, the official count matched the preliminary tally by 99.997%, indicating virtually no discrepancy between the two results.<\/p>\n
Cepeda alleges irregularities In a statement on Wednesday morning, Cepeda said he accepted the outcome \u201cas an act of democratic responsibility\u201d and in order to contribute to \u201ccoexistence, dialogue and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, he argued that recognizing the result did not require him to \u201cremain silent\u201d about what his coalition considers serious irregularities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe denounce the open and undue foreign interference in Colombia\u2019s internal affairs, particularly the interventions carried out by the U.S. government and, specifically, by President Donald Trump in favor of Abelardo de la Espriella\u2019s candidacy,\u201d Cepeda said.<\/p>\n
He also alleged the use of \u201csophisticated manipulation strategies\u201d involving artificial intelligence and claimed there had been a \u201cmassive vote-buying operation.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Cepeda\u2019s coalition, Pacto Hist\u00f3rico, had filed requests for recount reviews over alleged irregularities, it withdrew those challenges after he publicly recognized De la Espriella\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n
The coalition said, however, that it would continue investigating what it described as \u201cdirty media campaigns\u201d and potential problems with the electoral software used during the vote.<\/p>\n
Peru also steers to the right Peru also appears to be nearing a decision on its next president. Although the official count has yet to be completed, right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori has built a lead that local media consider insurmountable over left-wing rival Roberto S\u00e1nchez.<\/p>\n
The two faced off in a June 7 runoff that has produced one of the closest elections in Peru\u2019s recent history. The count has dragged on for nearly three weeks amid disputes over ballots and counting procedures.<\/p>\n
With 99.8% of votes tallied, Fujimori leads S\u00e1nchez by roughly 44,000 votes \u2014 less than one percentage point. While a small number of ballots remain uncounted, Peruvian newspaper El Comercio reported that the margin is mathematically irreversible.<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez has refused to concede defeat, accusing electoral authorities and the Foreign Ministry of modifying rules governing the counting of votes cast by Peruvians abroad in a move he claims favored Fujimori.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Colombia\u2019s electoral authorities on Wednesday formally declared Abelardo de la Espriella president-elect after completing the official vote count, confirming his narrow victory in Sunday\u2019s runoff election.\u00a0 He is due to take office on August 7. Left-wing candidate Iv\u00e1n Cepeda, backed by outgoing President Gustavo Petro, acknowledged the far-right candidate\u2019s victory hours before the official declaration, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":81598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16589,585,17363,54,59],"tags":[18246,9859,17362,183,86],"class_list":["post-81597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-abelardo-de-la-espriella","category-colombia","category-colombia-elections","category-latin-america","category-politics","tag-abelardo-de-la-espriella","tag-colombia","tag-colombia-elections","tag-latin-america","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}