Colombia Election Results 2026: As millions of Colombians headed to the polls on Sunday, May 31, one of the biggest questions across the country is how soon voters will know who is leading the presidential election and whether a second round will be necessary.
Polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. and are scheduled to close at 4:00 p.m. local time. Once voting ends, election officials and jury members at more than 125,000 voting tables across Colombia will immediately begin counting ballots in a process known as the preconteo, or preliminary vote count.
According to Colombia’s National Civil Registry, this initial count is designed to provide a rapid picture of the election outcome, although it does not carry legal validity. The official scrutiny process, known as escrutinio, takes place afterward and can take several days to be completed.
Colombia election results 2026: When will voters know who is winning the presidential race?
The first trends are expected to emerge shortly after voting closes. Election authorities will begin releasing preliminary bulletins only minutes after the first vote counts are reported from polling stations nationwide. These early updates often provide a rough indication of which candidates are performing well, although analysts caution that the numbers can shift as more voting tables report their results.
Political observers expect the most reliable trends to appear between 6:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. local time. By then, a significant percentage of ballots should have been counted, allowing analysts, media outlets, and campaigns to identify whether a candidate has a realistic chance of winning outright in the first round or if Colombia is headed toward a runoff election scheduled for June 21.
This year’s election has attracted enormous attention because it is widely viewed as a referendum on the political legacy of President Gustavo Petro. The race has largely centered around three major contenders: Ivan Cepeda, Paloma Valencia, and Abelardo de la Espriella. Recent polling and political analysis have suggested that no candidate may reach the threshold required to avoid a second round, making tonight’s trends especially important.
More than 41 million Colombians are eligible to vote in the election, making it one of the largest democratic exercises in the country’s history. Authorities have reported generally calm conditions throughout most of the day, despite weeks of intense political polarization and concerns about election security.
Election experts also remind voters that preliminary results should not be confused with final certified outcomes. Colombia’s electoral system includes several layers of verification, and official scrutiny can adjust vote totals after reviewing records from voting stations. While such changes are usually not dramatic, they can become important in a close race.
For Colombians following the results tonight, the key hours will be between 4:00 p.m., when the polls close, and approximately 7:00 p.m., when enough ballots are expected to be counted to reveal whether the country is about to elect a new president or prepare for a decisive second-round showdown in June.