Leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda leads Colombia’s crowded field of presidential candidates with 20.9% support in the latest nationwide poll from the Centro Nacional de Consultoria (CNC), the poll released Tuesday shows, a sharp jump that leaves a fragmented opposition chasing his numbers ahead of the 2026 vote.
The telephone and face-to-face survey of 2,140 respondents across 57 municipalities, financed by a private source and asking about 17 potential candidates, put far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella second at 14.4% and former Medellin mayor Sergio Fajardo third at 7.8%. Former Bogota mayor Claudia Lopez registered 5.0%, followed by Miguel Uribe Londoño at 4.1%. The remaining contenders were below 3% each.
CNC asked voters whom they would choose “if the election were next Sunday,” and found 18.5% saying they would vote for none of the candidates and 7.5% saying they did not yet know. When asked to identify which right-wing contender has the best chance nationally, respondents favored De la Espriella at 27.4%, with former vice president German Vargas Lleras at 13.7% and Miguel Uribe Londoño at 13.5%.
According to the CNC poll, 35% of Colombians would support Ivan Cepeda in the second round of the 2026 election
Party affinity questions in the poll showed Colombia’s governing coalition movement, Pacto Historico, with the highest identification at 24.3%, followed by the right-wing Centro Democratico at 19.4%. Asked to place themselves on the political spectrum, 28.2% of respondents said they are right-wing, 18.0% left-wing, 11.8% center, and 38.6% identified with none.
CNC also posed a hypothetical second-round choice pitting a candidate backed by outgoing President Gustavo Petro against one backed by former President Alvaro Uribe. In that scenario, 35.5% said they would back the Petro-aligned candidate, while 45.1% preferred the Uribe-backed contender; 15.7% chose neither, and 3.8% were undecided.
The poll is the second public measurement since a legal ban on opinion studies expired this November. Cepeda, a senator from the Pacto Historico, secured his party’s nomination after winning an internal consultation on Oct. 26, a development reflected in the CNC data showing growing recognition and support.
Analysts and campaigns use such early snapshots cautiously, noting a crowded and shifting field, as candidate momentum usually starts to pick up around March. The survey underscores both Cepeda’s current lead and the fragmentation of Colombia’s right-wing vote, where several right-of-center figures are competing for momentum. The CNC dossier and full questionnaire accompany the results; the poll did not publish a detailed margin of error in the summary released with the findings.