{"id":242166,"date":"2026-05-24T03:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T03:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/242166\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T03:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T03:00:17","slug":"colombian-right-wing-presidential-hopeful-leads-poll-for-runoff-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/242166\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombian right-wing presidential hopeful leads poll for runoff vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Item 1 of 2 Colombian lawyer and right-wing presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella attends a campaign event in Bogota, Colombia, May 7, 2026. REUTERS\/Nathalia Angarita\/ File Photo<\/p>\n

[1\/2]Colombian lawyer and right-wing presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella attends a campaign event in Bogota, Colombia, May 7, 2026. REUTERS\/Nathalia Angarita\/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab<\/a>BOGOTA, May 23 (Reuters) – Right-wing candidate Abelardo De La Espriella received a surge in voter support in the final week leading up to the first round of \u200bColombia’s presidential election, nearly tying with leftist Ivan Cepeda<\/a>, whom the latest poll \u200cpredicts he would defeat in a runoff.An AtlasIntel poll released on Saturday, the last to be issued before the May 31 vote, put Cepeda – the ruling party’s candidate<\/a> – in the lead with 38.7% of \u200bthe vote, followed by businessman De La Espriella with 37.3%.<\/p>\n

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However, the poll estimated \u200bthat in a potential runoff vote between the two, De La Espriella<\/a> would \u2060receive 50% of the vote and Cepeda just 41.3%.<\/p>\n

The survey was based on 4,531 \u200binterviews conducted between May 18 and 21. With one week to go until the election, \u200bDe La Espriella surged by 4 percentage points from AtlasIntel’s last poll, while Cepeda gained 1 percentage point.<\/p>\n

Paloma Valencia, of the right-wing Centro Democratico Party, trailed with 14.3% of voter intention, down by just \u200bover 2 percentage points. The poll predicted she would nevertheless beat Cepeda in a \u200brunoff with 44.6% to 41.5%.<\/p>\n

CONTRASTING VISIONS FOR COLOMBIACepeda has pledged to continue the path set by current \u200cPresident \u2060Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, by deepening social reforms to reduce inequality and pursuing peace talks with illegal armed groups<\/a>.<\/p>\n

De La Espriella has vowed to end negotiations and take a tough stance on crime and drug trafficking, offer incentives for private investors and entrepreneurs \u200band boost the country’s \u200bmining and energy \u2060sectors.<\/p>\n

Valencia promised to expand the size of the armed forces and national police, launch an offensive against criminal gangs and guerrillas, promote \u200bbusinesses and cut taxes.<\/p>\n

The opposition’s campaign promises would mark an about-turn \u200bfrom the \u2060current administration of Petro, a former M19 rebel<\/a> who stopped granting new oil and gas exploration contracts in a bid to move the country toward more sustainable energy sources<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His four-year term ends \u2060in August. \u200bIf no candidate wins more than half the valid \u200bvotes of the 41 million-strong electorate, a runoff between the two top candidates will be held on June \u200b21.<\/p>\n

Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Matthew Lewis<\/p>\n

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Luis Jaime has worked at Reuters for more than 30 years. While he chiefly covers Colombia’s armed conflict and the fight against drug trafficking from capital Bogot\u00e1, he also reports on politics, human rights, corruption, sports and the coffee industry, as well as companies in the energy and mining sectors. Before joining Reuters, he worked for Colombia’s Caracol Radio network for five years.
\nContact: +573102107084<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Item 1 of 2 Colombian lawyer and right-wing presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella attends a campaign event…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[16263,94720,46699,942,50912,46723,47867,16268,50167,48381,94721,2587,50162,46700,14811,16247,50163,75,84,83,16250,66088,16236,94722,9,24,63,16269,50169,16254,50165,46724,48390,2220,68923],"class_list":["post-242166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-amers","tag-apoll","tag-clj","tag-co","tag-crim","tag-cwp","tag-destocatpm","tag-destoustpm","tag-destouswdm","tag-dli","tag-dru","tag-eco","tag-emrg","tag-ener","tag-eng","tag-gen","tag-latam","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-mce","tag-min","tag-mtpix","tag-narc","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-packageus-top-news","tag-packageworld-news","tag-pol","tag-samer","tag-secur","tag-soci","tag-vote","tag-votp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}