Abelardo de la Espriella suspends the transition with Petro’s Government for not recognizing his victory

The president-elect of Colombia, Abelardo de la Espriella, ordered this Tuesday the suspension of the transition process with the outgoing administration of Gustavo Petro due to, allegedly, new comments from the current president who does not recognize his victory in the June 21 elections.

“I have just instructed the Vice President-elect of the Republic to immediately suspend the transition process with the corrupt government that is ending its term, a government that, through its decisions and conduct, intends to destroy Colombia,” stated De la Espriella on his X account.

According to the president-elect, his duty “is to protect the interests of the Nation and guarantee a serious, transparent transition that serves Colombians, never to legitimize the disaster or the disregard for the constitutional order.”

This very Tuesday he will give a message to the nation regarding the reasons for his decision.

The vice president-elect, José Manuel Restrepo, whom De la Espriella placed in charge of the transition process that began two weeks ago, indicated that the suspension has to do with Petro’s insistence on not recognizing the election result.

“Almost 13 million Colombians chose a new direction for the country. No one has the right to ignore that popular mandate or to question the legitimacy of the president-elect, Abelardo de la Espriella,” stated Restrepo also on X.

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Petro recently hardened his rejection of De la Espriella’s victory, of whom he said yesterday that “he did not win” and that he does not recognize the legitimacy of the Government that will take office on August 7.

In an extensive message posted on X, Petro reiterated his allegations of alleged electoral fraud through the manipulation of algorithms during the scrutiny and claimed, without providing evidence, that the vote was altered to favor De la Espriella, who won with more than 12.9 million votes.

“Abelardo did not win the election”

The outgoing president added that he does not recognize the legitimacy of the incoming government and maintained that “Abelardo did not win the elections,” since “the president of Colombia (…) according to the decision of the Colombians is the philosopher Iván Cepeda,” candidate of his party, the Historic Pact, who was defeated with 12.7 million votes.

After the second round of the election, the outgoing president assured that he would respect the results, but since then his allegations of fraud have escalated, even though electoral observation missions congratulated the National Registry and the National Electoral Council for the organization and transparency of the elections.

“Democracy, the Constitution, and the sovereign will of the citizens are respected. But let it be absolutely clear: this decision (to suspend the transition process) does not stop our work. We will continue investigating, gathering information, and rigorously documenting the reality of the country and the situations that the next government will have to face,” added Restrepo today.

De la Espriella has said that the presidential transition should not only be a transfer of information, but an audit to know the state in which Petro will hand over the Government and to denounce cases of corruption.