Colombian lawyer and political outsider Abelardo de la Espriella has clinched the presidential runoff by 250,830 votes, according to preliminary results showing the support of 49.66 percent of Colombians.

The conservative de la Espriella, 47, won 12,959,542 votes, securing victory against progressive Sen. Iván Cepeda Castro, a protégé of outgoing leftist President Gustavo Petro.

Cepeda, 63, won 12,708,712 votes, or 48.7 percent support, with 99.99 percent of votes counted by the national registry office.

The preliminary vote will now be officially reviewed before it becomes legally binding. Election officials have not formally announced a winner.

A Tight Race

As the preliminary count came in on June 22, de la Espriella, standing behind bulletproof glass, told thousands of supporters gathered in the northern Colombian city of Barranquilla: “We are beginning a new era!

“For those who have sown violence, terror, drug trafficking, and corruption all these years, their time is up!”

Petro, as he did in the first round of the presidential election on May 31, has challenged the result, saying that only the judges determine who is the president of Colombia.

“Neither can be proclaimed president,” he said on X of the early June 21 count. “It is the scrutiny that determines who is the president. I obey the judges.”

Cepeda stopped short of conceding, saying that his campaign considers the count “unofficial and non-binding” and that he will wait until all the votes are validated.

“Once the count has been completed and its final result is known, and the corresponding checks have been carried out, we will acknowledge the official result,” he said.

He said his team will challenge the results at more than 30,000 voting stations.

“We will not allow ... the rollback of the social gains we have achieved,” the senator said. “We will not allow democracy to be violated.”

No recount has ever seen the results of a Colombian presidential election overturned.

For Cepeda to win, he would need to overturn hundreds of thousands of votes. The margin of error for the first count is usually in the low tens of thousands.

The winner of the June 21 election will begin a four-year term on Aug. 7.

Interior-Peripheral Divide

According to the national registry office tally, the Defenders of the Fatherland movement won support from more voters in Colombia’s high-density interior and islands, while the Historic Pact Party won more support in the nation’s peripheral, low-density regions.

De la Espriella’s right-wing Defenders of the Fatherland movement ran on a promise to combat the power of drug-running guerrilla groups.

The lawyer, nicknamed “The Tiger,” who is also a business owner and father of four, earned U.S. President Donald Trump’s endorsement after winning the first round of the May 31 presidential election.

Cepeda led the charge for Colombia’s main left-wing party, the progressive and democratic socialist Historic Pact, and promised to continue Petro’s socialist agenda and negotiations for peace deals with the guerrilla groups—an approach that has not led to any breakthroughs.

Colombia continues to struggle with violence from guerrilla groups, which have more than 27,000 members. Last year, authorities recorded 14,780 homicides, the most since at least 2015—driven by clashes among the groups. Among those killed was conservative presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe.

Extortions have also soared, reaching 13,417 cases in 2025, more than double the number tallied in 2015.

The runoff was triggered after no candidate in the May presidential election secured more than 50 percent of the vote, with Petro challenging the results, claiming potential fraud.

In that vote, Cepeda trailed de la Espriella by 673,138 votes with 40.9 percent support. He also contested the initial result, which held up in the official tally.

Messages of Congratulations

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Argentine President Javier Milei, and Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa were among the first political leaders to congratulate de la Espriella.

The U.S. State Department said that Rubio called President-elect de La Espriella to congratulate him on his electoral victory.

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the result “reflects the will of the Colombian people and their commitment to democracy.”

“The Trump Administration looks forward to working closely with his incoming administration to advance our bilateral and regional security cooperation, end illegal immigration to the United States, and strengthen the economic ties between our two countries,” he added.

“He Won, BIG!” Trump later said on his social media platform.

Cepeda’s likely loss marks a return to power for Colombia’s right wing, which has ruled for all but four of the past 200 years.