On Sunday, Colombians will choose from more than 3,000 candidates seeking to secure 102 seats in the Senate and 182 seats in the House.
Colombians headed to the polls to elect a new Congress and elect new presidential candidates on Sunday as the country remains on high alert for political violence, with rural regions dominated by armed groups and the nation facing continued pressure from US President Donald Trump’s administration.
Around 41.2 million eligible voters in Colombia will choose from more than 3,000 candidates competing for 102 seats in the Senate and 182 seats in the House.
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In parallel with the vote in Congress, Colombians will decide the presidential candidates of the country’s three key political blocs: the left, the center left and the right.
The winners of the vote will be presented during the presidential elections, the first round of which is scheduled for May 31. However, the main candidates, including the leftist Iván Cepeda, the rightist Abelarda de la Espriella and the centrist Sergio Fajardo, will not participate during the primary elections.
For Federico Rodríguez, a 32-year-old business administrator, after voting in the capital, Bogotá, he said that it was “very important” to vote.
“The most important thing is that Colombia decides its future and that the results are respected,” Rodríguez told the Reuters news agency.
Before the polls opened at 08:00 local time (13:00 GMT) and were expected to close at 16:00 (21:00 GMT), Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez stated that a group of at least 2,400 people “supposedly heading to vote” were detected trying to enter the country through an illegal border crossing with Venezuela, despite the border closures announced during the electoral process.
“They are doing it illegally,” Sánchez said, adding that “this is a clear case that a crime is being committed.”
President Gustavo Petro also called the incident “large-scale fraud” and an “avalanche of illegal voting,” and called on the mayor of Cúcuta to take action.
“Sixty buses have been detained and the company responsible for bringing a large number of voters from across the border must be investigated immediately,” Petro wrote in X.
Additionally, more than 126,000 law enforcement officers are expected to be deployed across the country during Election Day.
But Petro, whose term as the country’s first left-wing leader ends in August, questioned the electoral software being used and pointed to the 2022 legislative elections, when his party, Pacto Histérico, won more than 390,000 votes after a recount.
Still, Sunday’s vote is expected to lay the groundwork for the next president, since under Petro’s government, Congress’ decision did not align with the president’s policies, a marked change when the legislature tended to be more aligned.
Petro’s tribulations with Trump
After a vitriolic war of words between the two leaders, Trump invited Petro to the White House last month.
Both leaders praised the meeting as productive, although they acknowledged lingering tensions dividing them.
Trump had previously called the Colombian leader a “sick man” and an “illegal drugs leader,” while blaming the country for funneling drugs into the United States.
The leaders began their dispute by exchanging threats on social media over the fate of American deportation flights, a key part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Petro objected to allegations of human rights violations faced by deportees. Meanwhile, Trump took Petro’s initial refusal to accept the flights as a threat to the “national security” of the United States. Petro finally backed down after Trump threatened heavy sanctions on imported Colombian products.
They continued to exchange barbs thereafter. Petro condemned deadly US attacks on ships in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, likening them to murder.
He has also criticized Trump for carrying out a US military offensive in Venezuela to kidnap then-president Nicolás Maduro. That attack, Petro said, amounted to a “kidnapping.”
Petro is constitutionally prohibited from seeking a second term as president. Whoever leads Colombia will have to deal with Trump and his focus on South and Central America, saying that Cuba is ready to fall while applying intense economic pressure, while continuing the war against Iran with Israel.
