The first round of the presidential election held on Sunday, May 31, produced a clear political snapshot among Colombians living abroad. Although participation was spread across dozens of countries and thousands of polling stations, voting trends showed behavior very similar to that seen in the legislative elections on March 8, when support was concentrated in the same political blocs now competing for the presidency.
The results confirmed that the Colombian diaspora once again split between right-wing and left-wing sectors, with marked differences depending on the country of residence. While the United States, Venezuela, and Mexico voted overwhelmingly for Abelardo De la Espriella, countries such as Spain, Germany, and Argentina gave an advantage to Ivan Cepeda, replicating electoral patterns that had already emerged during the congressional elections and the interparty primaries held in March.
Related: Colombian Presidential Election: Overseas Voting Gets Underway.
How did overseas voting unfold in Colombia’s presidential election?
Unlike what occurred within Colombia, where citizens went to the polls only on Sunday, May 31, Colombians living abroad had a much broader voting window. The National Civil Registry Office opened polling stations from May 24 through May 31, allowing voters to cast their ballots throughout the week at consulates, embassies, and other authorized locations around the world.
The system is designed to facilitate participation among a population that is geographically dispersed and faces different work and mobility conditions. For this presidential election, nearly 1.4 million Colombians were eligible to vote outside the country, distributed across 3,370 polling stations set up on different continents. By the close of voting, more than 573,000 citizens had exercised their right to vote.
The importance of the overseas vote is becoming increasingly evident in highly polarized electoral contests. Although it does not usually determine the national outcome on its own, it does represent a significant pool of votes that can become decisive in close races, especially ahead of a presidential runoff.
US once again emerged as the main stronghold of the right, while Spain leaned left
The United States, home to one of the largest Colombian communities in the world, delivered a decisive victory for Abelardo De la Espriella. With more than 95% of polling stations counted, the candidate received 72.71% of the vote, equivalent to more than 150,000 ballots.
Iván Cepeda trailed far behind with 14.54% of the vote. The gap confirmed a trend that had already been visible during the March legislative elections, when center-right and right-wing sectors achieved significant voter mobilization among Colombians residing in the United States.
The picture was different in Spain, where Europe’s largest Colombian community resides. There, Ivan Cepeda prevailed with 42.57% of the vote, compared with 40.76% received by Abelardo De la Espriella.
The margin was narrow, but sufficient to reaffirm a trend observed for several years. Colombian voters in Spain have shown greater receptiveness to progressive and center-left candidates, a pattern that was also reflected during the March 8 legislative elections.
Mixed results across Latin America
Voting in Latin America produced a more heterogeneous map. In Mexico, Abelardo De la Espriella won nearly half of all valid votes and comfortably outperformed Iván Cepeda. In Venezuela, the advantage was also decisive for the right-wing candidate, who received more than 66% of the vote.
Argentina presented the opposite scenario. There, Cepeda won 43.44% of the vote and defeated De la Espriella, who received 36.85%. In Chile, meanwhile, the contest was much closer, although it ultimately favored the right-wing candidate by a margin of just three percentage points.
Beyond the differences among countries, the overall overseas vote reflected political continuity with the legislative elections held on March 8. Territories where right-wing forces had performed well once again largely backed De la Espriella, while countries where progressive movements had demonstrated strength maintained their support for Cepeda.
That pattern suggests that the political preferences of the Colombian diaspora are relatively well established and that the shifts observed during the presidential campaign did not significantly alter the alignments formed during the congressional elections. With a runoff election scheduled for June 21, the vote of Colombians living abroad will once again become a key battleground for both candidates.
Related: Colombia’s New Right in the Post-Uribe Era.
The 2026 Election Repeats Colombia’s 2022 Political Map
The results of the first round of the presidential election held this Sunday in Colombia led to a striking conclusion: the country’s electoral map reproduced virtually the same territorial pattern seen in the 2022 presidential election.
Where Gustavo Petro prevailed four years ago, left-wing candidate Ivan Cepeda once again emerged victorious. Likewise, the territories that previously backed former right-wing candidate Rodolfo Hernandez this time delivered victory to far-right candidate Abelardo De la Espriella.
The geographic distribution of the vote showed remarkable continuity in regional political preferences, despite the fact that the main contenders are different. The outcome confirms that the major territorial divisions within the Colombian electorate remain intact and continue to shape the country’s political behavior.
Cepeda prevailed across much of the Caribbean Coast and the Pacific Coast, regions where Petro’s movement had already secured overwhelming majorities in 2022. He also dominated in Bogotá and across large areas of southern Colombia and the Amazonian periphery, territories that have traditionally shown greater receptiveness to left-wing proposals and political change.
For his part, De la Espriella consolidated his strength in the center of the country, largely replicating the areas that backed Hernández in the presidential election four years ago. Antioquia, with Medellin as its main political and electoral center, once again became one of the right’s strongest bastions. The same occurred in Santander and Norte de Santander, departments that recorded some of the strongest support for the conservative candidate.
The result paints a picture of territorial stability in electoral preferences and foreshadows a runoff election shaped by the same regional divides that have defined Colombian politics in recent years.