Colombian President Gustavo Petro said that he will not recognize the preliminary results of the vote count for the presidential elections and will wait for the electoral commissions to finish processing the protocols.
“As president, I do not recognize the preliminary results of the vote count by the Bautista brothers' private company, because despite the requirement that the algorithms for the vote counting and verification software remain unchanged, they have been modified three times in the last week, adding 800,000 identification numbers of people who are not on the official voter list“, he wrote in X.
According to Petro, this vote count cannot be considered legal binding. “Therefore, in accordance with the law, the legally binding results that I, as president, will accept and recognize are the results announced by the counting commissions, headed by judges“, he added.
Colombia's presidential elections were held on May 31. According to preliminary vote counts published on the website of the National Registry of Civil Status, far-right politician and businessman Abelardo de la Espriella (43.74%) and the candidate from the ruling leftist party “Historic Pact“ Ivan Cepeda (40.90%) emerged as the frontrunners.
These results put them in the runoff, which will be held on June 21.