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De la Espriella's law-and-order platform wins Colombia vote after earning Trump's support
Abelardo "The Tiger" de la Espriella, a criminal defence attorney with no prior political experience and an eccentric public persona, is on track to win Colombia's presidential elections Sunday night by a thin margin.
The 47-year-old De la Espriella led his rival, Sen. Ivan Cepeda, 63, by just under one per cent of the vote, or just over 250,000 votes with 99.9 per cent of votes counted. Election authorities have not officially declared a winner.
More than 41 million Colombians were eligible to vote, with turnout reaching nearly 64 per cent — one of the highest in the country's history.
An outsider candidate capitalized on frustration with Petro's 'Total Peace' approach to gangs to win Colombia's presidency.
The outsider de la Espriella, who rose to prominence by pushing a heavy-handed, zero-tolerance campaign against criminal groups, warned Cepeda, as well as current President Gustavo Petro, to not question the results.
"Petro and Cepeda, refrain from triggering a social explosion — respect the popular verdict, democracy, there will be no third round in the streets," de la Espriella told supporters from behind bulletproof glass in his hometown of Barranquilla, on Colombia's Atlantic coast.
For his part, Cepeda told supporters at a Bogota hotel that he recognized the initial count of votes as "a piece of information" that was "neither official nor binding" and that he planned to challenge the tallies from 33,000 voting tables.
"This campaign has ended with the tightest margin that has ever been registered in the electoral history of Colombia," Cepeda said.
Caravans of de la Espriella supporters paraded through the streets of Bogota as the results became apparent, many blowing horns and waving Colombian flags.
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