Colombia’s outgoing President Gustavo Petro on Monday (August 3, 2026) reiterated claims of fraud in the nation’s June election, which his party lost narrowly to conservative leader Abelardo de la Espriella.

In an hourlong presentation to journalists, Mr. Petro claimed that results from thousands of tally sheets were manipulated by programmers after vote counts were transmitted to the headquarters of Colombia’s national registrar, the agency in charge of organising the elections.

The accusations of fraud have been dismissed by international observers as well as electoral authorities in Colombia, which declared in late June that conservative lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won the election, defeating Petro ally Ivan Cepeda by 250,000 votes. De la Espriella will begin a four-year term on Friday after he is sworn into office in a joint session of Congress.

Mr. Petro, a longtime critic of Colombia’s political establishment, has refused to acknowledge the results of the June presidential election. On Monday, the outgoing President accused electoral authorities of running an “obscure” election manipulated by foreign powers, and said that officials did not provide metadata for tally sheets that were scanned and posted on a public website, where citizens can check the results of every voting center in the country.

“We are facing a profound institutional problem,” Mr. Petro said. “And it’s the inauguration of an illegitimate President.”

Under Colombian law, there is little Mr. Petro can do to stop de la Espriella from being sworn into office this week because the conservative leader’s victory has already been certified by electoral judges.

However, analysts say that Mr. Petro’s claims of electoral fraud could undermine de la Espriella’s legitimacy among some voters and further polarise the nation’s politics.

Cepeda has said he will organise a series of protests against the incoming President, and will not acknowledge him as Colombia’s leader until de la Espriella meets several conditions that include renouncing his dual U.S. citizenship.

Mr. Petro, a former member of a rebel group, earlier on Monday also urged people in rural areas to form committees he described as “liberation guards” that could resist the actions of military detachments that, according to him, are allied with local mafia groups.

Andres Macias, a political-science professor at Colombia’s Externado University, said that Mr. Petro’s statements could help “justify the use of weapons by civilians” in areas that have already been affected by conflicts between the Colombian military, drug traffickers and rebel groups.

Mr. Petro said on Monday he feared being “extracted” from Colombia after he steps down from office to become an opposition leader and continues to make claims that Colombia’s election was rigged.

“I’ve been told to behave well,” Mr. Petro said. “But as a democrat I cannot accept this electoral fraud.”

 Colombian right wing candidate Abelardo ‌De La Espriella looked poised to ​win the country’s Sunday (June 21, 2026) presidential race, ⁠notching just under 50% of the vote, with nearly 95% of ballot boxes counted, data from ‌the country’s national registry office showed.

His rival, the leftist Ivan Cepeda, ‌was some 368,000 votes behind with 48.4%. De ‌La ⁠Espriella, 47, has proposed a ⁠tough crackdown on crime, as well as the end to peace talks with armed groups and a ​boost to Colombia’s oil ‌and gas sector.

Mr. Cepeda, 63, has vowed to continue the policies of President Gustavo Petro, a former rebel and the country’s ‌first leftist president, which include state pension ​payments for the poor, union-backed labor reforms, peace talks with armed ⁠groups that have fought the state for decades and a moratorium on new oil projects.

Mr. De ‌La Espriella blames Mr. Petro for the country’s economic and security woes and has vowed to lower taxes and reduce the size of the state by up to 40%, but has said he will ‌preserve Mr. Petro’s 23% increase in the minimum wage, along ​with other popular social measures.

Whoever wins will grapple with high public debt ⁠and a divided Congress, which could stymie reform ⁠proposals.

Some 4,00,000 voters turned in blank ballots, usually seen as a protest ‌vote.

A former mayor allied with presidential candidate Abelardo de La Espriella was shot dead in Colombia’s heartland, local authorities said Saturday (May 17, 2026). One of his aides was also killed.

The killings of Rogers Devia and his staffer Eder Cardona were the latest incident of political violence in a region under dispute by two groups labelled as terrorists by the U.S. government and a third group — a splinter of the once dominant guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Devia died in an attack by gunmen in the rural area of Cubarral, a city he governed between 2020-2023 lying 170 kilometres (105 miles) south of the capital Bogota, said the Public Defender’s Office of the department of Meta in a posting on X.

Mr. De La Espriella represents the National Salvation Movement.

The Public Defender’s Office said the killings could hurt “the exercise of political rights and democratic participation” ahead of Colombia’s presidential elections, which take place May 31.

There will be at least half a dozen candidates competing in the election, including two members of smaller left-wing parties. If none of them gets 50% of the votes a run off will take place in June between the top two contenders.

Colombia’s Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said on his social media channels that investigators do not know why Devia was attacked. The Minister added that police had recently stopped an attack against a staffer of another presidential candidate, Paloma Valencia, in the same city.

Colombians head to the polls on Sunday (March 8, 2026) to elect a new Congress and select candidates from three major coalitions in a primary-style contest ahead of a presidential election this May.

The election unfolds under high alert for political violence across the South American country, particularly in rural regions dominated by illegal armed groups.

At the same time, President Gustavo Petro — the nation’s first left-leaning leader — has cast doubt on the country’s election software, pointing to the 2022 legislative elections, when his Historic Pact movement gained over 390,000 votes following a recount. He attributed this shift to the presence of election observers.

The European Union deployed 40 election observers in early February and said it intended to increase the size of the delegation for the upcoming congressional vote.

Also read: The ‘Donroe doctrine’, a broken international order

More than 3,000 candidates are vying for 285 legislative positions — 102 in the Senate and 183 in the House of Representatives — with 41.2 million citizens eligible to cast their ballots.

Sunday’s (March 8, 2026) election is set to define the political landscape for Colombia’s next head of state.

Mr. Petro is ineligible for reelection because the constitution bars a sitting president from running for a consecutive second term.

Colombia’s current Congress approved Mr. Petro’s pension and labour overhaul, but rejected his proposed reforms to the health care and tax reforms, and there were often tensions between him and lawmakers.

Meanwhile, the right-wing opposition is looking to reclaim its status as a dominant political force. The Democratic Centre, the nation’s primary opposition party, continues to be guided by the influence of former President Álvaro Uribe, who is mobilising his base to secure a strong legislative presence ahead of the presidential vote.

Alongside the congressional vote, Colombians will vote to choose presidential candidates for the country’s three major political blocs: the centre, the centre-left, and the right. The winners of the three “inter-party consultations,” similar to American primary elections, will go on to compete in the presidential election, whose first round is set for May 31.

Presidential hopefuls have long used the primaries to gauge their support before entering the first round of voting. This strategy proved successful four years ago for Mr. Petro, who consolidated his base by winning the left-wing primary alongside Francia Marquez, who became his Vice President.

However, the two candidates currently leading in the polls — leftist Ivan Cepeda, from Mr. Petro’s party, and far-right Abelardo de la Espriella — are not participating in the primaries, which are optional.

Political analyst Gabriel Cifuentes said the primaries are a high-stakes gamble for the participants, noting that a victory on Sunday (March 8, 2026) is only meaningful if it demonstrates enough strength to compete with the leading candidates, such as Cepeda and de la Espriella.

More than 126,000 law enforcement officers are expected to be deployed across the country on Election Day.