BUENOS AIRES, June 1. /TASS/. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has said he does not recognize the results of the preliminary vote count in the presidential election and will wait for the election commissions to complete the processing of the ballots.
"As president, I do not accept the pre-count results from the private firm of the Bautista brothers because, although the counting and tallying software algorithms should have remained unchanged, they were modified three times during the last week, and 800,000 additional ID records were added for people who are not included in the official voter registry presented," he wrote on X.
According to Petro, the vote count cannot be considered legally binding. "Therefore, in accordance with the law, the results that I, as president, will accept and recognize as legally binding are those announced by the vote-counting commissions headed by judges," he added.
On May 31, Colombia held its presidential election. According to preliminary vote counts published on the website of the National Civil Registry, the frontrunners are far-right politician and businessman Abelardo de la Espriella (43.74% of the vote) and Ivan Cepeda (40.90%), the candidate of the ruling left-wing Historic Pact party. Based on these results, they are set to advance to the second round, which will take place on June 21.
