Far-right lawyer De La Espriella wins Colombia’s tight presidential race

Far-right lawyer Abelardo De La Espriella has clinched a narrow victory in Colombia’s presidential run-off election, according to an initial ballot count.

Abelardo de la Espriella won 49.7 percent of the vote versus left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda’s 48.70 percent, with 99.9 percent of results released by electoral authorities early Monday.

Cepeda, 63, had pledged to maintain the policies of President Gustavo Petro, a former rebel and the country’s first leftist president, including popular social measures and continued peace talks with armed groups.

De La Espriella, meanwhile, has blamed Petro for the country’s economic and security troubles, pledging to end talks with rebel groups while boosting the oil and gas sector and lowering taxes.

“I will govern for all Colombians,” De La Espriella told a crowd of supporters gathered in the coastal city of Barranquilla.

He earlier celebrated a congratulatory call from United States President Donald Trump. De La Espriella is also a citizen of the US and Italy and has homes in multiple countries.

“It is a victory for Colombia – a change after four lost years with no clear direction,” Viviana Olivos, a 46-year-old mechanical engineer who attended the celebration, told the Reuters news agency.

Rightward turn

De la Espriella’s victory marks a return to power for Colombia’s right wing, which has ruled for all but four of the last 200 years.

But the closeness of the race will likely force De La Espriella to water down some of his proposals so as to get support from a divided Congress.

The lawyer, with no prior political experience, will also have to grapple with high public debt. He has presented himself as a businessman, but an investigation by local outlet La Silla ‌Vacia found ⁠that many of his businesses have been dissolved, are in debt and have lost money overall.

Major business guilds congratulated De La Espriella on his victory, while upper- and middle-class neighbourhoods in Bogota and Medellin celebrated.

More than 26.3 million Colombians cast ballots, of the 41.4 million eligible to vote.

Cepeda told his supporters at an event in Bogota that he would await a final, ballot-by-ballot check of the initial count, saying his campaign is challenging results from some 33,000 ballot boxes, out of 122,000 in total.

“We are open to dialogue; we are willing to reach agreements as long as they are respectful, genuine, and reflected in political actions that benefit the nation and preserve the historical progress we have already achieved,” Cepeda said.

Security plagues top concerns

Security was a key concern for many De La Espriella voters, especially in regions where extortion and drug trafficking have risen recently.

Leftist armed groups and crime gangs founded by former right-wing paramilitaries have fought each other and the state for more than 60 years.

During the campaign, De La Espriella said he would scrap peace talks with dissident groups and launch a 90-day campaign of US-backed air attacks against them.

In the 10 years since a landmark peace accord was signed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) group, much of Colombia has prospered. But cartels and dissident groups still control pockets of the country.

“Rancour has won again. Unfortunately, we are in a country where differences continue,” Cepeda supporter Margarita Restrepo told Reuters.

Around her neck, she had a photo of her daughter, Carol Vanessa Restrepo, who disappeared in 2002 during a security operation ordered by former President Alvaro Uribe, Cepeda’s longtime nemesis and a De La Espriella supporter.

Colombia’s vote follows a regional rightward shift, with voters in Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, Bolivia and Ecuador all electing right-wing presidents in their most recent elections.