Ivan Cepeda Denied Participation in Left-Wing Primary in Colombia

Written on 02/04/2026
Josep Freixes
The Colombian electoral authority denied Ivan Cepeda’s participation in the inter-party consultation of the left-wing “Front for Life”. Credit: Colombian Senate.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) finally decided this Wednesday on whether candidate Ivan Cepeda would participate in the Colombian left’s interparty primary, in which he was the overwhelming favorite, scheduled for March 8, the same day as the legislative elections.

The decision, taken by six votes, is based on the candidate having already participated in the internal primary of the Historical Pact last Oct. 26, which, according to the electoral authority, disqualifies him from competing in another.

The ruling, which must still be ratified with a new legal opinion, leaves the Frente por la Vida — the left’s primary — without its main contender and forces an accelerated reconfiguration of strategies less than four months before the presidential elections.

The response from the governing party — which Cepeda himself, in fact, previewed yesterday — confirmed that following his exclusion, he will go directly as the sole candidate of the Historical Pact to the first round on May 31.

This move, more than a Plan B, is a show of force that seeks to capitalize on his broad internal support and challenge the rest of the progressive opposition to join his project or face him at the ballot box. CNE’s decision, therefore, not only resolves a legal dispute but also completely redefines the presidential race.

Ivan Cepeda denied participation in left-wing primary in Colombia

Cepeda’s exclusion is based on a strict interpretation of electoral regulations. The defeated legal opinion in CNE, supported by temporary judge Alberto Rios, argued that the Historical Pact’s internal primary in October was a party-specific event, distinct from the interparty primary convened by the Frente por la Vida, and therefore not disqualifying.

However, the majority of the magistrates considered the law to be clear in preventing a candidate from participating in more than one process of this type. This literal reading of the rule nullifies the unity strategy that several left and center-left forces had been weaving to present a single strong presidential candidate.

The decision occurred after the participation of the temporary judges designated to study the case, following weeks of a legal entanglement that had delayed today’s decision. With their intervention, the final vote was six votes against four, with a dissenting vote from temporary judge Hollman Ibañez of the Alianza Verde party, which allowed for the overturning of the legal opinion presented by magistrates Alvaro Echeverry, Fabiola Marquez, and Alba Lucia Velasquez.

With this result, the necessary majorities were configured to conclude that the aspirant is disqualified from taking part in the primary of the so-called Front for Life, as the regulations establish that a minimum of six votes is required for a decision for it to be binding.

The impact on the Front for Life, the left-wing coalition, sees the figure who led all the polls to win the primary vanish. Following the Historical Pact’s exclusion of Cepeda, this group is currently configured by Camilo Romero’s Partido del Trabajo, Juan Fernando Cristo’s En Marcha movement, and the ex-ambassador Roy Barreras’s La Fuerza. Furthermore, a final decision is still pending on the inclusion of the ex-mayor of Medellin, Daniel Quintero.

Without Cepeda on the March 8 ballot, the process loses appeal and tactical sense for many of its allies. The political calculus changes radically, and what was planned as a mechanism for unity could now become the trigger for greater fragmentation.

Related: Colombia’s Petro Calls Cepeda’s Exclusion from Primaries a ‘Blow to Democracy’.

Cepeda will go directly to the first round of the elections

With the deadline this coming Friday, Feb. 6, for CNE to rule definitively on the exclusion or not of Ivan Cepeda from the interparty primary, the aspirant himself and his party made public yesterday morning that, in the event of a decision against the senator and presidential aspirant, Cepeda would go directly to the first round of the presidential elections, which will be held on Sunday, May 31.

“If CNE prevents our participation in the primary, we will immediately register his candidacy to lead a great political and social agreement, win in the first round, and deepen the country’s transformations. The will of millions does not stop,” explained the Historical Pact in a statement issued yesterday, Tuesday.

Additionally, in the afternoon hours, Cepeda immersed himself in a crowd in Bogota, at a popular rally called to show support for President Gustavo Petro, who, just hours earlier, had met in Washington with U.S. President Donald Trump.

With a clear advantage, the candidate of the left majority leads all polls in the first round, and most also project him as the winner in a hypothetical runoff, scheduled for the last Sunday in June. With over 30% of consolidated votes, the campaign seeking to continue Gustavo Petro’s government now aims, as it states, to win the vote in the first round — something that does not seem easy, considering that the left will not go united into that vote.

Likewise, it is still necessary to gauge the response of the other participants in the left-wing primary to this controversial decision by the National Electoral Council. Except for Roy Barreras, who has been more cautious, the rest of the contenders have shown their open support for Ivan Cepeda’s aspirations, and their decision regarding the future of a potential primary without the main poll favorite remains pending.

Related: Primaries Without Ivan Cepeda? The Dilemma Facing Colombia’s Left.