Colombian President Gustavo Petro disputes preliminary vote counts showing opposition candidate Abelardo de la Espriella leading, citing alleged software manipulation and 800,000 unverified ballots.
9:27 PM
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Sunday he does not recognize preliminary election results released by the National Registry, which showed opposition candidate Abelardo de la Espriella leading with over 10 million votes ahead of government-backed senator Iván Cepeda.
Petro stated on social media that the preliminary count lacks binding force and its data are not public record. He objected specifically to the counting system operated by the Bautista brothers' private firm, which manages the electoral authority's software.
According to Petro, the counting algorithms should have remained static, but were altered three times in the past week. During that period, he said, 800,000 additional ballots were added for people not listed in the official census presented to electoral authorities.
Petro said two separate census records now exist: the official one and the software version maintained by the Bautista firm, which contains 800,000 additional names. He argued that challenged polling stations demonstrate hundreds of thousands of votes were added without corresponding voters.
The president said the binding results he will recognize and accept are those certified by the Republic's judicial commissions overseeing the count, not the preliminary figures from the private firm.
Preliminary results showed De la Espriella with 43 percent and Cepeda with 41 percent. Since neither candidate secured an outright majority in the first round, both are set to compete in a runoff election.
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