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Bogotá, Jun 21.- Left-wing presidential candidate Iván Cepeda acknowledged this Sunday the preliminary results of the second round of elections in Colombia, which give a narrow victory to far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, but announced that his campaign will challenge 33,000 polling stations during the official count.
n” “n“We have reached this final stage with the narrowest margin of votes recorded in any runoff election in Colombian electoral history,” stated Cepeda in a declaration to his followers in Bogota, after the results of 99.91% of the reported polling stations were known, which grant him 12.7 million votes (48.70%), compared to De la Espriella’s 12.9 million (49.65%).
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n” “nThe candidate of the Historic Pact, the party of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, assured that both he and his movement respect democratic rules and recognize the result provided by the preliminary count.
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“We have stated it: the Historic Pact and the Alliance for Life, all of our leaders are democrats. Far from us is authoritarianism and arbitrariness. We recognize the preliminary count that has been carried out tonight as official data,” he stated.
n” “nHowever, he reported that his campaign’s legal and electoral oversight teams have already begun challenging 33,000 polling stations across the country.
“Our group of witnesses, tens of thousands of lawyers, are proceeding to challenge 33,000 polling stations across the country. One by one they must be subject to scrutiny,” he pointed out.
Cepeda used his speech to ensure that he will not allow the “social achievements” made by the current Government, which will conclude on August 7, to “be rolled back.”
n” “n“We are not going to allow, we say it clearly, by making use of the strength of democracy, mobilization, and political action, for the social achievements we have built in these years in Colombia to be rolled back,” affirmed the left-wing candidate.
n” “nCepeda, who is a senator, added that the left-wing sector is willing to engage in dialogue for the unity of the country: “We are open to dialogue, we are open to consensus, as long as it is respectful.”
n” “nCepeda also highlighted the high turnout recorded on election day, which reached 63.57%, and assured that greater citizen mobilization constitutes “good news for the country”.
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