Bogotá.- The left-wing Colombian presidential candidate Iván Cepeda announced this Saturday an investigation into the campaign of his rival, the far-right Abelardo de la Espriella, for alleged vote buying and other irregularities, and insisted on holding a debate before the second round of the election on June 21st.
“My campaign, through multiple channels, is receiving information that we are going to document regarding potential irregular and illicit financial dealings by Mr. De la Espriella’s campaign,” said Cepeda in a statement to the press in Cali, capital of Valle del Cauca (southwest).
Cepeda, who was second in last Sunday’s first round, said he had “received information about an alleged vote-buying scheme or the movement of large amounts of money for that purpose in different parts of the country” by the De la Espriella campaign.
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The pro-government candidate said that “a dirty campaign has been deployed” against him using artificial intelligence, and for that reason, he will initiate legal action against De la Espriella and his team, for which he has appointed lawyer Miguel Ángel del Río.
“Given that Mr. De la Espriella is going down the dirty path of artificial intelligence manipulation, social media campaigns (…) and also moving the vote not through argument, not with a platform, but through other means, we are going to take action,” reported Cepeda, who did not take questions from the media.
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On the other hand, the leftist candidate said that he will ask the management of the private channels RCN and Caracol and the public television RTVC to organize a debate between him and the far-right candidate, a decision subject to the reach that those media outlets have.
Cepeda insisted that “the country is anxiously awaiting” this meeting, to which Colombians have a “right,” even though during the first round of the presidential elections he refused to debate with the other candidates.
To speed up this meeting, Cepeda asked De la Espriella to appoint two commissioners and thus advance the proposed debate.
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“Perhaps he (De la Espriella) doesn’t like the rules, that’s his procedure (…) but in a democracy, that’s how it is. These are basic and minimum rules. So we return to demanding that he appoint his commissioners so that we can move forward,” said Cepeda.
De la Espriella, from the Defenders of the Homeland movement and called ‘the tiger’ by his followers, was the most voted candidate in last Sunday’s first round, with 10.3 million votes (43.78%), while Cepeda, from the Historic Pact, the party of the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, obtained 9.7 million (40.98%).
