The 2026 presidential elections are entering a decisive and unprecedented phase in Colombia: Next March 8, the same day citizens will also elect their representatives to Congress, interparty primaries will be held simultaneously to determine the presidential candidates of different political blocs.
After months of negotiations, internal tensions, decisions by the National Electoral Council (CNE), and the withdrawal or exclusion of key figures, the map of these primaries has finally been defined into three contests: A broad alliance of the traditional right, a moderate center race, and a fragmented left-wing primary.
This new chapter puts on the table not only the strength of each coalition to unify but also the ability of Colombia’s political structures to compete on the road to the first round on May 31.
The complexity of the process — which has been gaining ground in elections in recent years — reflects the transformations of Colombia’s political system, where interparty primaries, conceived as mechanisms for unity and internal legitimacy, ended up strained by egos, jurisprudence, and party strategies.
The final configuration of these primaries offers a preliminary snapshot of how the sectors are positioned in the face of a deeply polarized presidential race, with questions about representativeness, electoral viability, and the internal cohesion of political forces.
Once the three winners of the primaries are known, they will join the already confirmed candidates — Ivan Cepeda, Abelardo De la Espriella, Sergio Fajardo, Juan Fernando Cristo, Clara Lopez, Luis Gilberto Murillo, Santiago Botero, Daniel Palacios, Sondra Macollins, Carlos Caicedo, Carlos Felipe Córdoba, and Mauricio Lizcano — for a total of 15 presidential options in the first round, for now.
The deadline for closing these nominations for the first round of elections is March 13, so the final number may still change.
Colombia’s Presidential primaries: How the tickets stand for March 8
Beyond the names, the first thing that stands out is that what initially was a disjointed right-wing primary now offers far greater unity than expected.
Beyond Abelardo De la Espriella, an independent candidate, the “Great Consultation for Colombia” (Gran Consulta por Colombia, in Spanish) ultimately brings together the main voices of the most traditional right, from which a unified candidate is expected to emerge to compete in the first round with De la Espriella and the rest of the contenders.
However, the “Front for Life” (Frente por la Vida, in Spanish), primarily, which was supposed to group the main figures of the left, has ended up fragmented and has even lost electoral appeal for many analysts, following the exclusion of Ivan Cepeda, the leading candidate of this ideological spectrum, who also tops most polls.
As for the political center, something similar has occurred to the left-wing primary. After the refusal of aspirant Sergio Fajardo, this primary is reduced to former Bogota mayor Claudia Lopez and lawyer Leonardo Huertas in “The Solutions Consultation” (La Consulta de las Soluciones, in Spanish).
Without Ivan Cepeda, Abelardo De la Espriella, and Sergio Fajardo — the three main aspirants according to all opinion polls — some analysts believe the primaries will lose the initial strength they seemed set to have this year.
Nevertheless, the truth is that beyond the interests of each list, depending on the name that manages to prevail in the right-wing primary, it could give renewed momentum to options that just a few months ago were outside any real aspiration to the presidency.
The Great Consultation for Colombia: the traditional right in search of unity
The so-called “Great Consultation for Colombia” is shaping up as the largest and most competitive of the three primaries scheduled for March 8.
In this traditional right-wing coalition, nine aspirants have registered for the presidential nomination, forming a spectrum that ranges from historic figures of conservative parties to leaders with more independent or media-oriented profiles.
This space includes contenders ranging from Senator Paloma Valencia, backed by the muscle of the Democratic Center party, to former officials and well-known politicians, as well as candidates aspiring through the collection of signatures.
Alongside Valencia are former Mines Minister Mauricio Cardenas; former minister David Luna; journalist Vicky Davila; the leader of Nuevo Liberalismo, Juan Manuel Galan; former minister Juan Carlos Pinzon; former governor of Antioquia Anibal Gaviria; former Bogota mayor Enrique Peñalosa; and former DANE director Juan Daniel Oviedo.
Expectations within this bloc revolve around which candidate will manage to capitalize not only on party machinery but also on national visibility amid the legislative campaign.
Analysts have noted that the inclusion of traditional figures may contribute to greater electoral cohesion, although such a broad primary also entails a risk of vote dispersion that could weaken the sector’s strength vis-à-vis other primaries.
For the right, the Great Consultation for Colombia represents an opportunity for recomposition after years of fragmentation, but also a challenge to consolidate a competitive candidate against the broad spectrum of options available to the electorate. In this sense, Paloma Valencia and Vicky Davila lead voting intention in this primary.
The Solutions Primary: the center in search of a competitive profile
Alongside the Great Consultation for Colombia, the “Solutions Primary: health, security, and education” will take place, conceived as the expression of the political center in the electoral arena.
Two candidates considered moderate are participating in this primary, who, according to their proposals, seek to offer pragmatic approaches and distance themselves both from the most polarized visions of the left and from the traditional stances of the right.
Former Bogota mayor Claudia Lopez, from the Green Alliance, will face Leonardo Huertas, a lesser-known aspirant who, a priori, offers Lopez greater chances of prevailing in a primary that, nevertheless, has lost the momentum that participants themselves hoped to gain with the presence of other players.
The center — as a political space — has faced difficulties in bringing together high-profile leadership, in part due to the decision by figures such as Sergio Fajardo and Maurice Armitage not to participate in this primary and to compete directly in the presidential first round. This absence reflects both the organizational weakness of moderate sectors and internal competition for representativeness in a saturated political offering.
It should be recalled that the two final aspirants have based their campaigns on the need to provide concrete responses to structural problems in Colombia, emphasizing issues such as education, public safety, and the modernization of the health care system.
Front for Life: the left with questions and divisions
Perhaps the most controversial primary of this cycle is the one that was expected to be a display of unity for the Colombian left. Under the name Front for Life, this interparty primary was born with the intention of uniting progressive forces and continuity supporters of the governing coalition, based on the values and agenda of the Historic Pact.
However, the process has been shaken by legal decisions and internal disputes that ended up weakening its unifying potential.
The most visible element of this fracture was the exclusion of Senator Ivan Cepeda from this primary, by decision of the National Electoral Council, after determining that his participation violated regulations on successive participation in primary mechanisms.
This forced the Historic Pact to rethink its strategy and led Cepeda to announce that he will run directly in the presidential first round, leaving the Frente por la Vida primary without its strongest figure in national polls.
Following this announcement, other aspirants such as former minister Juan Fernando Cristo and former ambassador Camilo Romero also withdrew from the primary and are running directly in the first round scheduled for May 31.
As a result of this decision, the left-wing primary is now made up of candidates such as Roy Barreras — whose decision to remain in it has been strongly criticized by sectors close to Cepeda — the former mayor of Medellin, Daniel Quintero, and other lesser-known aspirants at the national level, such as former M-19 militant Hector Pineda; lawyer Martha Viviana Bernal; and human rights defender Edison Torres.
Although the CNE authorized Quintero’s participation in the primary after a legal challenge, Cepeda’s absence forces progressivism to debate its unity and electoral strategy at a decisive moment, in which the left’s initial unity is now in question.
It should be recalled that just a few weeks ago, only the candidacy of Carlos Caicedo, from the Citizen Power coalition, was competing from the left against the winner of the Front for Life primary.
Today, that landscape of unity has been altered, and the decisions taken by various actors have fueled discrepancies and open questions.