The National Civil Registry confirmed 14 candidate pairs for the May 31 presidential elections, making this race the most diverse in recent Colombian history. The candidacies of Aida Quilcue and Juan Daniel Oviedo place the recognition and protection of ethnic and cultural diversity representation in Colombia’s presidential race — guaranteed by the 1991 Constitution — at the center of the debate.
Other minority candidates are also running, largely overlooked by mainstream media, yet their presence marks a historic step toward inclusion after decades of near-absent minority representation in presidential politics.
The current political landscape reflects this shift. In 2022, Francia Elena Marquez broke barriers as Colombia’s first Afro-Colombian vice president, earning national recognition for her environmental leadership and her defense of human rights.
Who counts as a minority?
The Colombian Constitution guarantees equality and nondiscrimination based on sex, race, language, and other criteria, and explicitly recognizes Indigenous and Afro-Colombian people through special constituencies.
Building on this foundation, subsequent public policies expanded the scope of minority recognition to include groups the Constitution did not originally contemplate, but now that is a reality in the Colombian representation in the presidential race.
Through these policies, the state extended inclusion and recognition to communities defined by sexual orientation, gender-based participation, and non-Indigenous ethnic identity, such as the Romani people.
Women on the ballot
Among the 14 presidential candidates, four are women, and 10 are men, placing female participation at almost 30% of the electoral contest. When adding the vice-presidential candidates, the number of women in the race climbs to six, while eight men compete for the country’s second most important position.
One ticket stands out above the rest: The Partido Esperanza Democratica (Democratic Hope Party) fielded an all-women formula, placing Clara Eugenia Lopez Obregon as its presidential candidate and Maria Consuelo del Rio Mantilla as her running mate — the only entirely female ticket among the 14 competing pairs.
LGBTQ+ candidates enter the race
Presidential candidate Claudia Lopez and vice-presidential candidate Juan Daniel Oviedo both identify openly as members of the LGBTQ+ community, although neither has made this a central theme in their campaign statements.
Colombian law recognizes the LGBTQ+ population as a protected social minority and guarantees their rights through decrees, laws, and jurisprudence. However, unlike Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities, LGBTQ+ citizens lack direct political representation in Congress. Their inclusion relies on public policies and the progressive interpretation of the Constitutional Court, rather than on constitutionally guaranteed seats.
The Afro-Colombian candidate
Among the candidates for the country’s highest office is engineer Luis Gilberto Murillo Urrutia, the only candidate representing Afro-Colombian communities.
Murillo served as governor of the Choco department between 1998 and 1999 and again in 2012, as well as minister of Environment and Sustainable Development in the government of Juan Manuel Santos between 2016 and 2018.
During Gustavo Petro’s presidency, he served as Colombia’s ambassador to the United States from 2022 to 2024 and as minister of Foreign Affairs between 2024 and 2025. As background to the position, it is worth noting that Juan Jose Nieto Gil was Colombia’s first and only Afro-Colombian president, who governed in 1861.
His legacy was silenced by structural racism for over a century, and his portrait was whitewashed before he was officially recognized in 2018.
The Indigenous quota
Finally, Indigenous leader Aida Quilcue seeks to become the first Indigenous woman to hold the vice presidency of Colombia. She intends to succeed Francia Marquez, with whom she shares the distinction of being from Cauca, a woman, and belonging to an ethnic minority recognized by the Constitution.
With all of the above, this campaign demonstrates greater representation in the presidential race of marginalized groups recognized by the state and a move toward the principles of diversity and inclusion defined in the Constitution and endorsed by Colombian institutions. Now it is the voters’ turn to make progress in this direction.