Several contenders are polling below 1%, while three candidates have withdrawn from the race.

On Friday, Colombia meets the deadline to register vice-presidential candidates for the presidential elections on May 31, with twelve candidates running for the 2026-2030 term.

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Ivan Cepeda, senator and candidate for the Historical Pact, President Gustavo Petro’s coalition, registered Indigenous leader Aida Quilcue as his running mate, highlighting the representation of Indigenous communities in his political platform.

According to polls, Cepeda is among the frontrunners, along with far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, followed by Paloma Valencia, Senator from the Democratic Center Party, Claudia Lopez, former mayor of Bogota, and Sergio Fajardo, former mayor of Medellin.

Valencia registered independent economist Juan Daniel Oviedo as her vice-presidential running mate, while Alvaro Uribe, former president of Colombia (2002-2010), publicly endorsed her candidacy.

Lopez registered Leonardo Huerta, former Advocate for Health, as her vice-presidential running mate. Both participated in the centrist “Solutions Primary,” where they accumulated 595,000 votes.

The text reads, “The racist backlash against the announcement of Quilcue as Cepeda’s vice-presidential running mate did not come out of nowhere, but rather stems from a long history of stigmatization against Indigenous peoples in Colombia. Quilcue is neither a symbolic nor an impromptu figure: she is a leader with decades of political experience in the Indigenous movement of Cauca, whose leadership has been built on the land and through the defense of rights.”

Fajardo registered his candidacy with Edna Bonilla, former Secretary of Education for Bogota, as his running mate, emphasizing the need to “reach every corner of the country” with educational proposals.

De la Espriella registered former minister Jose Manuel Restrepo as his vice-presidential running mate in Cali. Other contenders include Roy Barreras, Mauricio Lizcano, Miguel Uribe Londoño, and Santiago Botero. Several are polling below 1%, while three candidates have withdrawn from the race.

During the legislative elections held on Sunday, the Immediate Reception Unit for Electoral Transparency registered 775 citizen complaints related to electoral crimes, such as corruption and voter coercion.

teleSUR: JP

Source: EFE

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