Colombia’s National Electoral Council (CNE) has officially certified the members of the country’s new Congress for the 2026 – 2030 legislative term, which was sworn in on July 20, through Resolution 3328 of 2026, concluding the national vote-counting process for the legislative elections.

More about Colombia’s electoral process? Colombia Officially Certifies President-Elect Abelardo de la Espriella. Here’s How the Country’s Vote Validation System Works

The resolution confirmed the election of 102 senators chosen by popular vote following the official tally of 19,478,739 ballots. The Senate will also include former presidential candidate Iván Cepeda, who was awarded the opposition seat guaranteed under Colombia’s Constitution after finishing second in the presidential election.

In the Senate, the Pacto Histórico coalition, led by outgoing President Gustavo Petro, emerged as the largest bloc with 26 seats, although well short of an outright majority. It is followed by the Centro Democrático party with 17 seats, the Partido Liberal Colombiano with 13, the Alianza por Colombia coalition, led by the Partido Verde (Green Party), with 11, the Partido Conservador with 10, the Partido de la U with eight, the Cambio Radical-ALMA coalition with seven, the Ahora Colombia coalition with five, and the National Salvation Movement, President Abelardo de la Espriella‘s party, with four seats.

The remaining two Senate seats correspond to Indigenous constituencies and are held by representatives of the Indigenous and Social Alternative Movement (MAIS) and the National Organization of Indigenous Authorities of Colombia.

The CNE also certified the composition of the House of Representatives, which consists of 183 lawmakers elected from Colombia’s departments, the Capital District of Bogotá and the country’s special electoral constituencies.

Unlike the Senate, which is elected through a nationwide constituency, members of the House of Representatives are elected from territorial and special constituencies, resulting in a more geographically diverse chamber with stronger representation from regional political parties.

The 183 House seats are distributed as follows: 161 represent Colombia’s departments and Bogotá; 16 are reserved for victims of the country’s armed conflict through the Special Temporary Peace Constituencies; two represent Afro-Colombian communities; one represents the Raizal community of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina; one is reserved for Indigenous communities; one represents Colombians living abroad; and one additional seat is reserved for the opposition and will be held by Aida Quilcué, the vice presidential running mate of Iván Cepeda.

Coalition alignments begin

With the installation of the new Congress, the deadline also began under Law 1909 of 2018, known as the Opposition Statute, requiring political parties represented in Congress to formally declare whether they will support the government, join the opposition or remain independent. The deadline expires on August 20, 2026.

So far, President Abelardo de la Espriella has secured the support of four political parties: National Salvation, Cambio Radical, Centro Democrático, and the Partido Conservador.

The backing of Cambio Radical is particularly significant because newly appointed Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara Restrepo belongs to the party and will be responsible for building legislative majorities for the new administration. The Char clan, the influential political and business group based in the Caribbean city of Barranquilla, has supported De la Espriella since the beginning of his presidential campaign, is also part of Cambio Radical.

By contrast, the Pacto Histórico announced it will serve as the main opposition force under the leadership of former President Gustavo Petro and Senator Iván Cepeda. Meanwhile, the Liberal, Green Party, and De La U have yet to decide whether they will join the government coalition, remain independent or declare themselves in opposition.

Read more: De la Espriella Begins Building Congressional Support with Interior Minister Appointment and Early Political Alliances

A fragmented Congress

Combined, the Pacto Histórico will hold the largest congressional caucus with 69 lawmakers (43 in the House of Representatives and 26 in the Senate), followed by the Centro Democrático with 47 seats, and the Liberals with 37.

The distribution confirms a highly fragmented Congress, with no political force holding an outright majority in either chamber, where 52 votes are required in the Senate and 92 in the House. As a result, both the government and the opposition will need to negotiate support for each bill individually, a situation similar to that faced by the outgoing administration.

The first legislative session provided an early example of that dynamic. During the vote for Senate president, widely considered the most influential position in Congress, De la Espriella’s government backed Senator Alfredo Deluque of Partido de La U in an effort to strengthen ties with the party, which has yet to define its relationship with the new administration.

Instead, Senator Honorio Henríquez of the Centro Democrático won the post with 56 votes, defeating Deluque, who received 45.

The outcome underscored the absence of stable legislative majorities and suggested that relations between the executive and Congress will depend on continuous negotiations over the next four years within Colombia’s constitutional system of separated powers and institutional checks and balances.

The difference between the two candidates was 673,125 votes, equivalent to 2.84% of the total, a relatively narrow margin that points to a closely contested runoff in a highly polarized political environment.

For De la Espriella, the election marks an unprecedented moment in recent Colombian political history: it is the first time a far-right candidacy has reached a presidential runoff with a realistic chance of winning the presidency. For Cepeda, the race represents an opportunity to continue the political project launched by President Gustavo Petro, the first democratically elected left-wing president in Colombia’s history.

A system designed to limit presidential power

Colombia now finds itself divided between two political visions that appear difficult to reconcile. Regardless of who wins, the next administration is likely to face a period marked by political division, social mobilization and sustained confrontation, reflecting the concentration of support behind two ideologically opposed movements.

Beyond ideological differences, however, the key question for markets, institutions and the international community is how governability would function under either scenario.

Colombia operates under one of Latin America’s most stable institutional frameworks, built on a system of checks and balances among the executive, legislative and judicial branches. This structure has allowed for political alternation, regular elections and the absence of prolonged institutional breakdowns throughout the country’s contemporary history.

In that context, neither candidate has a clear path to implementing major structural reforms without building broad political agreements.

De la Espriella would begin with legislative disadvantages

De la Espriella enters the runoff as the frontrunner after winning the first round, but he faces a significant legislative constraint. His political movement, Salvación Nacional, secured only three seats in the Senate and one seat in the House of Representatives, a level of representation insufficient to pass major reforms without broad congressional coalitions.

Colombia’s Congress consists of 103 senators and 183 representatives. Depending on the type of legislation, bills require simple majorities, absolute majorities or, in the case of constitutional amendments, support equivalent to two-thirds of both chambers.

Given that reality, a De la Espriella administration would depend heavily on alliances with other political forces. His first major endorsement came from Centro Democrático, the party of former President Álvaro Uribe, which holds 46 congressional seats (17 in the Senate and 29 in the House).

He could also seek agreements with conservative parties such as the Conservative Party (29 seats), Cambio Radical (19) and the Party of La U (19).

Even so, legislative arithmetic suggests that each reform would require separate negotiations and continuous political bargaining, including with smaller parties, potentially increasing political costs for the executive branch, as has occurred under Petro’s administration.

Even so, legislative arithmetic suggests that each reform would require separate negotiations and continuous political bargaining, including with smaller parties, potentially increasing political costs for the executive branch, as has occurred under Petro’s administration.

De la Espriella remains far from the numbers needed to secure congressional majorities. As a result, he could seek to appeal directly to voters through referendums or popular consultations. However, such mechanisms involve lengthy procedures and have not always been successful because of participation thresholds and voting requirements.

Examples include former President Juan Manuel Santos’ 2016 peace plebiscite, which reached the participation threshold but was rejected by voters, the 2018 anti-corruption consultation, which failed to obtain enough votes to enact legislation, and former President Álvaro Uribe’s 2003 referendum proposal aimed at reducing the size of the state. For those reasons, this route appears difficult to pursue successfully.

Cepeda would have a broader legislative base

Cepeda’s situation would be different, though not necessarily easier, since he also lacks an outright congressional majority.

In fact, reaching the runoff already represents a significant achievement given that he finished second in the first round. A similar situation occurred in 2014, when Juan Manuel Santos overcame a first-round deficit through multiple political alliances and a campaign centered on national unity around the peace process.

Cepeda is backed by the Pacto Histórico coalition, which emerged as the largest political force in the new Congress with 64 seats across both chambers. Additional support could come from center-left groups such as Alianza por Colombia (20 seats), representatives elected through the Special Peace Constituencies (16 seats), and other smaller progressive parties.

Although that configuration would bring him closer to legislative majorities, it would still fall short of guaranteeing automatic approval of complex reforms.

Petro’s administration offers a useful precedent. Through temporary political agreements, it managed to pass several significant initiatives, including labor reform measures, peace-related policies and a tax reform package. However, it struggled to advance more ambitious projects, including healthcare reform, agrarian and land policies, and the consolidation of the Ministry of Equality.

Cepeda would also inherit part of the political burden associated with the current administration, particularly on issues related to security, public health and economic management.

Proposals such as a future constituent assembly, an initiative championed by Petro, have already generated opposition among political rivals and segments of the electorate, potentially creating additional challenges for a Cepeda administration.

Under either scenario, the next president will need an Interior Minister capable of navigating Congress and building multiple legislative agreements for each major policy initiative.

She has the machinery of the Partido de la U party at her service, a party that under her directorship from 2020 until August 5 achieved broad influence in all regions and in decision-making positions in Bogotá.

Photo: Dilian Francisca Toro, frontrunner to win the October election to become governor of Valle del Cauca. (Credit: Partido de la U)

The only candidate within close proximity of her in recent polls, Tulio Gómez, is no longer in the race.

Despite holding nearly 25% in a recent poll of those who intend to vote by the firm MM Consultores, the Superinter founder was disqualified by the National Electoral Council (CNE) due to the fact that the football club he owns, América de Cali, has entered into multiple contracts with the mayor of Cali in recent years. Though he may appeal the decision, the vote was heavily against his ability to run in this election

The other main challengers — including Ferney Lozano, William Cruz, and Óscar Gamboa — have failed to register even 3% of expected voter, leaving a potentially easy path to victory if Gómez is in fact unable to participate.

Dilian Francisca Toro and Valle del Cauca

Valle del Cauca is the biggest and richest department in Colombia’s Pacific coast. Cali, its capital, is the third in the country (after Bogotá and Medellín) and receives the migratory flow from areas of the Pacific zone and southern Colombia. Additionally, on its coast of the Pacific Ocean is located the Port District of Buenaventura, where 44% of the nation’s foreign trade is moved.

Having an outlet to the Pacific also represents a challenge for the authorities because criminal drug trafficking organizations, heavily armed, seek this exit corridor for their illicit business and are in a continuous battle between them for territorial control.

In political terms, this part of Colombia holds special interest for Colombian President Gustavo Petro given that it was where he received his second-highest vote total when he was elected in 2022 with more than 1.3 million votes. (Petro received 2.25 million votes in Bogotá.)

Toro stood in first place in the race, holding favor with 31.5% of those with the intention to vote, in the MM Consultores poll on September 20 — even before Gómez was disqualified.

During her previous term, which began with her winning the election by more than 500,000 votes, she faced and solved social problems such as the increase in crime in the coastal city of Buenaventura and Palmira, a neighbor of Cali. Despite this, and financial instability of the region’s state hospitals, whose crisis had them on the brink of closure, she was selected as the best governor in the country by the Colombia Líder organization.

All those are known attainments that the inhabitants of this part of the country appear to remember and that they apparently recognize in terms of the favorability that backs her in the surveys. During Toro’s term, her manager of the Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation of Valle del Cauca, was Clara Luz Roldán, who won the election later in 2019 and is the current Valle del Cauca’s governor.

On her official website, she recounted that her political career began as Mayor of Guacarí —a city where she was born and is located in the center of Valle del Cauca— from 1992 to 1994. Afterward, she held the position of Departmental Health Secretary between 1995 and 1997 and from 2002 until 2010, she was elected as senator in the National Congress.

Toro lost in her first attempt to win the governorship election in 2000 before her success in 2015. Concurrently, she expanded her participation in the Partido de la U party until she was chosen as its director in the midst of the pandemic, in 2020.

Having become an important actor in the Colombian political scene, it has earned her the nickname The Baroness, which she already accepts, although reluctantly, as she hinted in an interview with La Silla Vacía on August 13. For the 2023 candidacy, she has the support of six other political parties. Toro is also backed up by the majority of the Cambio Radical party senators.

For the 2022 presidential elections, her name was considered as an option, but in the end she declined. Because of this, it is not ruled out that Toro will try again to run for the first position in the country in future political campaigns.

Gómez, a Formidable Challenger, Exits the Governor’s Race

Gómez, originally from Caldas before relocating to Valle del Cauca more than 50 years ago, looked like a formidable challenger who potentially could have prevented Toro’s return to office.

But in a surprise turn of events, on September 25 de CNE revoked his candidacy with a vote of 6-2, according to them, because there were merits to overthrow Gomez’s aspiration given that he would be disqualified by law from holding the position.

The CNE had a pending request asking them to revoke his candidacy (file #CNE-E-DG-2023-019080), in view of the fact that the electoral regulations emphasize that no candidate for popularly elected office can have a contractual relationship with the state, at least one year before the corporation to which he wants to aspire.

In Tulio Gómez’s case, he signed arrangements with the municipality of Cali, in the last year, related to spaces that he rented at the Pascual Guerrero stadium, home to América de Cali, of which he is the largest shareholder.

It is known that he was involved — as representative of América de Cali — in three contracts, between November 2022 and January 2023, with the Sports Secretary, which is part of the Cali mayor’s office. When notified of the decision, Gómez may appeal it through an appeal resource and the court would have two days to respond.

On Twitter, Gómez decried the decision: “I am not a state contractor, they want to disqualify me for a place that they were going to rent to us for the América de Cali’s merchandise, but that place was not the one we needed, therefore the contract was not finalized. Let them defeat me at the polls, not with tricks.”

Who Is Tulio Gómez?

Gómez has a reputation as a successful businessman and savior of lost causes, although no experience in politics, per a characterization by Huevos Revueltos con el Partido (Scrambled Eggs with Politics), a well-known podcast covering Colombian politics.

His popularity emanates from the football. More specifically, his tenure as the main shareholder and president of América de Cali has seen the team promoted from the second division back to the top flight after several embarrassing years in the lower level for the storied club.

In the business world, since 2019, he has been the owner of a well-known network of retail supermarkets called Agromercados La Montaña. He is considered a successful business person because he went from having a little grocery store in a Cali’s low-income city area to becoming, in 1990, the owner of Super Inter, a large chain of supermarkets with commercial premises in several cities of Valle del Cauca. Years later, in 2014, he sold it to the giant economic group Éxito, based in Medellín.

La Silla Vacía highlights on its website that Gómez, who was registered by signatures before the National Registry representing the Valle 2.0 movement, received support from politicians such as Senator Carlos Motoa, from the Cambio Radical party, and Duvalier Sánchez, from the Alianza Verde Party. Also, he is backed up by Ritter López, a former senator of Partido de la U party and old ally of Dilian Francisca Toro.

In like manner, Horman David García, who was in the race for Valle del Cauca’s next governor with the endorsement of the Verde Oxígeno political movement, renounced his aspiration and joined Tulio Gómez’s campaign.

Other Candidates Remaining in the Race

The rest of aspirants sit below 3% in the latest by MM Consultores. Ferney Lozano (2.74%), promoted by the Pacto Histórico, the current national government coalition, worked closely with President Gustavo Petro during his position as Bogotá’s Mayor (2013), and actively was part of his campaign in Valle del Cauca when Petro ran for President in 2022.

In turn, William Cruz (1.20%) represents the Fuerza Ciudadana movement and this is his first foray into politics.

With the same percentage in the MM Consultores firm’s survey (1.20%), Óscar Gamboa is seeking for the third time to become governor of Valle del Cauca after obtaining more than 100,000 votes in 2015 and again in 2019, when he achieved a little more than 22,000 votes. On this occasion, he is supported by the Dignidad & Compromiso party. He is a close friend of the Colombian ambassador in Washington, Luis Gilberto Murillo.

The representative of the traditional parties is Santiago Castro, who appears with 1.03% in the survey. Castro has been part of the Conservador party (founded in 1849), which he represented as a congressman (2002-2006), but currently represents the Centro Democrático party.

At the bottom of the named survey are Luis Velásquez (0.85%) for the Liga Gobernantes Anticorrupción party (the political group of Rodolfo Hernández, former presidential candidate in 2022) and Horman David García (0.68%) who, as noted, is working on Gómez’s campaign.

MOE Monitors Elections in Valle del Cauca

One other major factor that will surround the upcoming elections are concerns over public order, a threat that has unsettled the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) in this department.

Alejandro Sánchez, MOE coordinator in Valle del Cauca, told Finance Colombia that their worries are about the upper area of ​​Jamundí (city neighboring Cali, in the south), in the western mountain range, where the Jaime Martínez mobile column of the FARC dissidents is present. In addition to this area, MOE is concerned about the central mountain range, bordering the department Cauca, a part known as “The Marijuana Triangle” that involves cities in Cauca and Valle del Cauca, such as Pradera.

Additionally, there are cities about which the MOE presented reports on political violence, such as Buenaventura and Cali, which are the ones that historically, in the last 10 years, were beset by the violence associated with the voting processes. However, in Tuluá, a city located in the center of Valle del Cauca, has also attracted the attention of the MOE due to recent situations of electoral violence, including candidates killed and threatened last August.

In Antioquia, the power base of embattled former president and current senator Alvaro Uribe, all of the mayoral candidates that received his blessing went down to defeat except for in the Medellín suburb of Bello, a city that has suffered grave problems with both political corruption and an organized crime crisis. According to Colombia Reports, the mayor-elect of Bello and Uribe partisan is a member of the Suarez crime family and already is facing criminal charges from his time as mayor between 2008 and 2011. A judge has allegedly ordered him to wear an electronic ankle bracelet.

Above photo: Medellín’s mayor elect Daniel Quintero (left) with Antioquia’s governor elect Anibal Gaviria Correa. Gaviria was previously mayor of Medellín before outgoing mayor Federico “Fico” Gutierrez. (Photo from Twitter: @QuinteroCalle)

Political outsider Daniel Quintero resoundingly defeated the “Uribista” candidate Alfredo Ramos, son of a close Uribe ally, this despite a campaign of “dirty tricks” against Quintero, who won the mayoral race for Medellin without the support of an existing political party or incumbent backing. From humble backgrounds, Quintero ran on an anti-corruption, centrist platform. Uribe, who was former mayor of Medellín, and governor of Antioquia, the department where Medellín is located, lives on a ranch just outside of Medellín, and has traditionally counted on the region as his primary base of supporters. After serving as governor in the late 1990s, Uribe became President of Colombia in the last decade,

In Uribe’s Centro Democratico party, the figurative daggers have already come out, with many party operatives and politicians placing the blame on Colombia’s current President and Centro Democratico partisan Ivan Duque. This, even though Uribe is currently facing charges before the country’s supreme court of witness tampering that may land the former president in prison.

Colombia’s Atlantic coast industrial powerhouse of Barranquilla saw Jaime Pumarejo elected as mayor, supported by immensely popular outgoing mayor Alejandro Char, and backed by a broad coalition of parties including Cambio Radical, Conservative, Liberal, The U, and Centro Democratico.

Bogotá, Colombia’s capital and largest city, saw center left senator Claudia Lopez win the mayors position running on an anti-corruption platform. Bogotá has generally suffered contentious politics in the mayor’s office. The outgoing mayor Enrique Peñalosa squabbled constantly with former M-19 militant revolutionary, senator and former mayor Gustavo Petro, who supported candidate Holman Morris in this election. Morris is embroiled in a nasty battle with his estranged wife, who alleges domestic violence during the campaign. Lopez is the first openly lesbian politician to hold major office in Colombia, a country that remains very socially conservative and religiously influenced. Lopez had support of left wing parties the Alianza Verde (Green Party) and the Polo Democratico.

Corruption plagued coastal city Cartagena saw another shocking upset by almost unknown political reformer William Dau and his fledgling political movement named “Let’s Save Cartagena.” Dau is new to political office but is well established in the corporate world. Dau has worked as a lawyer and internal auditor for Exxon Mobil, planner for Occidental Petroleum, and has ties to investment giant The Blackstone Group. Spending less than $17,000 USD on his campaign, Dau leveraged a non-traditional social-media focused campaign to beat the traditional political machines on the Atlantic coast, often embroiled in vote buying and election rigging scandals.

Former FARC militant and musician Guillermo Torres became the first former insurgent to win a mayoral election after the peace process was signed, though he did so not as a member of the new FARC political party, but with the support of the far-left Union Patriotica and Gustavo Petro’s Colombia Humana. Torres will take office as the mayor of Turbaco, a town near Cartagena. The town gained mild fame for gifting a donkey to former US President Obama when he visited Colombia in 2012. Obama thanked the town but did not accept the donkey. Torres won the election with over 50% of the vote and ran on a platform of environmental justice.

Centrist and peace process supporter Sergio Fajardo and left-leaning Humberto de la Calle both announced that they would submit a “voto en blanco” at the ballot box on June 17, meaning that they will submit a blank ballot rather than vote for either candidate.

While rightwing candidate Iván Duque was unlikely to receive the support of his rivals, Petro has a lot of ground to make up and would have benefited from an endorsement.

Photo: While former Medellín mayor Sergio Fajardo does not have “king-making” sway in Colombia, his decision to not support Gustavo Petro in the June 17 election is a setback for the leftist candidate. (Photo Credit: Inter-American Dialogue)

The first round of the election was held on May 27. But because no candidate earned a 50% majority, as mandated by Colombian law to avoid a runoff, the top two vote-getters move on to vie head-to-head in the second round.

Fajardo narrowly missed out on making the second round. While Duque easily came in first — his 7,569,693 votes were 39.14% of the total cast — Fajardo’s 4,589,696 votes were just 261,558 fewer than the 4,851,254 received by second-place finisher Petro.

Both of the remaining candidates will spend their next few weeks on the campaign trail trying to convince Fajardo voters to pick them. But without an endorsement from the centrist former Medellín mayor, Petro is likely to find it difficult to make up the wide gap with Duque, the “Urbista” candidate of the Democratic Center party and its ideological leader former President Álvaro Uribe.

While the Fajardo support was likely to splinter to some degree regardless of his endorsement (and many would have logged a “voto en blanco” anyway) Petro is more reliant on it.

In addition to beating Petro by more than 2.7 million votes, Duque can likely count on much wider support among the more than 1.4 million who voted for right-leaning former vice president Germán Vargas Lleras in the first round.

De la Calle, a former vice president who lead Colombia’s peace negotiations in Cuba that led to historic accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2016, also announced that he will “voto en blanco” and not endorse either of the remaining candidates. He finished fifth in the first round, albeit with only 399,180 votes.

Though the losing candidates themselves do carry weight, various political parties within the country whose candidates of choice were ousted have picked sides for the second round.

The Alternative Democratic Pole party, which supported Fajardo in round one, has announced its support for Petro. The Liberal Party, who supported De la Calle in the first round and is one of two traditional parties in the country, has thrown its hat in for Duque.

The Party of the U, which is led by President Juan Manuel Santos, announced that it will not formally support either of the remaining candidates. It had supported Vargas Lleras in the first round.

READ MORE: Duque, Petro Face Off for Colombian Presidency in Vote on June 17

The Duque campaign and Democratic Center party have also been in coalition-building discussions this week about forming a larger alliance in Congress with the right-leaning Radical Change party, which has supported Vargas Lleras.

If successful, this could potentially help to a victorious Duque presidential administration build a majority in the legislature as he attempts to carry out campaign promises.

Photo: Before they became rivals, then-President Álvaro Uribe (right) and then-Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos (center) meet with U.S. officials in Washington. (Credit: U.S. Defense Department)

Colombians went to the polls this weekend to elect their new representatives in both houses of Congress, and the results reflected the wide plurality of political views in a country that has grow highly divided over an extended peace process, the scourge of corruption, economic stagnation, and how to solve a host of commonplace issues from healthcare and education to security and environmental concerns.

While the coalitions on the right and left both saw movement in terms of representation, the final totals show five parties relatively lumped together, with none grasping the type of numerical seat advantage that will allow it to exert dominance.

The Democratic Center (Centro Democrático) party of former president Álvaro Uribe, however, fared the best in terms of gaining seats while the Party of the U (Partido de la U) of President Juan Manuel Santos lost a lot of ground.

Nevertheless, the leading parties will all still need to continue building coalitions to push their agendas in the next legislative session in what has become the fragmented political landscape in Colombia today.

“We ended up with a very balanced Senate,” stated Medellín-based Bancolombia today in a note to investors. “Whoever wins the presidential election is going to have to work with a broad church and radical changes are unlikely.”

One factor highlighting this dynamic are the gains made yesterday by the Green Alliance (Alianza Verde). Compared to the 2014 congressional election, the smaller, left-wing party nearly doubled its number of seats across the two houses to put it on the map as a more-serious force.

Analysts at the London-based Capital Economics saw the results similarly to those at Bancolombia. “A highly fragmented Congress will lean against a big shift in policy in either direction,” stated the research group in its investors’ note.

In the Senate, the Democratic Center ended up on top with 19 seats, followed by Radical Change (Cambio Radical) with 16, and the Conservative party (Conservador Colombiano) with 15 seats. The Liberal party (Liberal Colombiano) and Party of the U (Partido de la U) were closely behind with 14 seats each.

Among the individual Senate candidates, Uribe received by far the highest volume of national support. The only candidate to come anywhere near the right-wing ex-president’s 875,554 vote tally was two-time former Bogotá mayor Aurelijus Mockus with 540,783, whose large base further showed the rise of the Green Alliance.

Orge Enrique Robledo of the Alternative Democratic Pole (Polo Democrático Alternativo) also garnered heavy support, with 226,099 votes, while 10 other candidates finished with more than 100,000 votes.

Results in the territorial-based lower house were similarly stratified, although the top three parties managed to carve out a more substantial advantage in terms of seats won. The Liberal party, with more than 16.6% of the national vote, earned 35 seats followed closely by the Democratic Center with 32 and Radical Change with 30 seats.

The Party of the U, of sitting, and soon to be outgoing, President Santos, fared better in the lower house than the Senate. Its 25 seats put it fourth and ahead of the 21 seats won by the Conservative party, but this still represents a significant drop-off from its power-wielding position throughout the second term of Santos.

The Green Alliance, garnering almost 6% of the national tally, ranked much further behind in the Chamber. Its roughly 884,000 votes were less than half of the top five parties, leaving it with 9 seats.

While much was made about the first-ever electoral participation of the party that emerged from the demobilized FARC guerrilla group, voters gave the former rebels almost no support at the ballot box. The party comprised of ex-guerrilla candidates from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which has retained the FARC acronym, got less than 0.4% of the national vote in both the Senate and the Chamber. (Regardless of the results, under the peace accord, the FARC party is set to receive five seats in each house of Congress.)

“The FARC, despite all the fears when the peace agreement was signed, mustered a miserly 52,000 votes,” stated Bancolombia,” adding that “they do get give seats as part of the agreement but they are non-voting seats.”

In addition to the congressional election, the primaries to decide the candidates for Colombia’s conservative and liberal factions were also held on Sunday. Iván Duque, on the right, and leftist candidate Gustavo Petro were the runaway winners for each side and will represent their respective coalitions in the May 27 presidential election. They are expected to remain the frontrunners in the race.

While other political wrangling and coalition building could continue to alter the makeup of the rest of the field, other likely presidential candidates include former Medellín mayor Sergio Fajardo, former vice president Germán Lleras Vargas, and lead governmental peace process negotiator Humberto de la Calle.

“The same four candidates are still expected to dominate the polls — Duque, Petro, Lleras, Fajardo — and it is still a close call at this point and the second round is still fully expected to be a left vs. right run off,” stated Bancolombia. “The only factor being discussed during the analysis of last night’s results would be a potential first round victory if either side could create a grand alliance ahead of the vote but that would require certain candidates to withdraw from the election and pledge their support.”

At press time, with more than 98% of the primary ballots counted, leftist Gustavo Petro had received nearly 85% of the votes to represent his side over rival Carlos Caicedo. On the right, conservative Iván Duque had taken more than two-thirds of the votes to beat out challengers Martha Lucía Ramírez (26%) and Alejandro Ordoñez (6%).

Photo: Gustavo Petro and Ivan Duque, the left and right coalition candidates in the 2018 presidential election in Colombia. (Credit: Prensa de Bogotá / Leoboud)

While Petro’s support was larger in percentage terms on his side of the ledger, Duque gained much more support in terms of raw voting totals due to the right’s primary having much higher turnout.

Potentially also running against several non-coalition party candidates — such as former Medellín mayor Sergio Fajardo, former vice president Germán Vargas Lleras, and lead peace process negotiator Humberto de la Calle — these two coalition leaders now become the likely favorites in the May 27 election to replace outgoing two-term President Juan Manuel Santos. (If, as expected, no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, a second-round run-off election between the top two vote-getters will take place on June 17.)

But the overwhelming margins did not ease the minds of the many Colombians on both sides who suspected impropriety when their local voting sites reportedly ran out of primary ballots to fill out. The outcry was substantial on social media, with at least one video going viral that showed angry voters verbally confronting the location’s elections officials.

READ MORE: Colombia’s Private-Sector-Friendly President? Analyzing the Candidates

To many, it represented yet another hint of manipulation in an election cycle that has seen the issue of corruption move to the forefront following the near-constant revelation of issues like the unprecedented upheaval of the region-wide Odebrecht scandal, a sweeping criminal investigation that has implicated multiple former Supreme Court justices, among other politicians, and various other private sector crimes and instances of graft from public officials.

According to Colombia Reports, the governmental National Register chalked up the problem to a clerical printing error and authorized the stations to photocopy remaining blank ballots on site. The agency refused, however, to extend voting hours to account for the lost time and confusion created in some areas by the lack of ballots.

Congressional Election

The new composition of the Colombian Congress — both its Senate and Chamber of Representatives — was also voted upon today in what was the kickoff of an election season that will overhaul both the legislative and executive branches in Colombia for the next four years. In all, today’s voting will define the selection of 102 members of the Senate and 166 members of the Chamber.

There were not widespread reports of ballot shortages in the congressional elections throughout the day.

Late in the evening, with nearly 90% of the votes tallied, the Democratic Center (Centro Democrático) party, which has come to be synonymous with former president Álvaro Uribe, led the national voting for Senate. Support is widely fragmented, however, with the top five parties all receiving between 19% and 14% of the recorded votes.

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While Democratic Center leads thus far with roughly 19%, it is followed closely by Radical Change (Cambio Radical) at 16%, and three parties that each have received 14% of the votes: the Liberal Party (Partido Liberal), Conservative Party (Partido Conservador), and Party of the U (Partido de la U).

In the lower house, the Liberal Party had a slight edge over the other leaders to take the most seats. Not far behind were Democratic Center and Radical Change followed by Party of the U and the Conservative Party.

The larger number of congress members now on the right side of the aisle, particularly the gains by the Uribe-minded Democratic Center, means that there likely will be more criticism and pressure looming this year for the peace accord with FARC signed in late 2016, the signature work of eight years in office by Party of the U head Santos.

While court rulings could help protect the accord to a degree, aspects of the roughly 300-page document have already been slow to develop under a more-welcoming legislative branch, while Uribe and some others on the far right have pledged to block the implementation of many provisions of the deal. Such tensions would expect to be greater if the right-leaning legislative wave portends a Duque victory in the presidential election.

Today’s election also marked the first to include candidates from the newly created political party of the former FARC guerrilla faction. Though it received paltry support — less than 0.5% in both the Senate and the Chamber — the 2016 peace accord with the government that led to the demobilization of the armed group guarantees the party of FARC to receive five seats in each house.

FARC will run no candidate in May’s presidential election. Former top commander Rodrigo Londoño, aka Timochenko, had launched a campaign earlier this year but he recently called off his plan to run after undergoing heart surgery.