Colombian President Petro Refuses to Accept Provisional Election Results

Mexico City (ANTARA) - Colombian President Gustavo Petro has stated he will not recognise the provisional vote count showing opposition candidate Abelardo de la Espriella leading. Petro insists he will only accept the official results determined by the electoral commission after the ballot verification process is complete. “As president, I do not accept the provisional vote count conducted by the private company, the Bautista brothers,” Petro wrote on X on Monday (June 1), referring to the Bautista Palacio family, owners of Thomas Greg & Sons. The company has long been involved in organising elections in Colombia and is one of the largest contractors for the National Registry, the country’s civil registration authority. Thomas Greg & Sons handles various election stages, including logistics and software for provisional vote counting. Petro claims that in the final week before voting, the software algorithm used for tallying and processing election results was modified three times. He also alleges that data for approximately 800,000 individuals not listed on the official voter register appeared in the system. “There are now two voter lists: the official one and the one used by the Bautista brothers’ software, which includes an additional 800,000 people,” he said. Petro also stated that results from several polling stations under scrutiny showed hundreds of thousands of additional votes without corresponding voters. The Colombian president emphasised that provisional vote counts are not legally binding. “Under the law, the results from the vote verification commission operating under the supervision of a Republic judge are the valid and binding results to be considered and recognised by the president,” he said. According to the latest data from Colombia’s national electoral system, with 99.9% of polling stations processed, opposition candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Firm for the Homeland party secured 43.73% of votes, or approximately 10.35 million. Meanwhile, Historic Pact coalition candidate Ivan Cepeda received 40.91% of votes, or around 9.69 million. As no candidate secured over 50% of votes, the presidential election will proceed to a second round on June 21.