Iván Cepeda, the left-wing candidate in Colombia’s presidential runoff, conceded defeat on Wednesday after the national electoral authority reported that the legally binding scrutiny matched the preliminary count with 99.997% accuracy. The official tally confirmed a margin of less than one percentage point — roughly 250,000 votes — in favour of the right-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, clearing the way for a transition of power on 7 August.

Cepeda, a senator allied with outgoing President Gustavo Petro, stated that accepting the result was an “act of democratic responsibility” but insisted it did not mean renouncing the truth about what he called “open and undue foreign interference” by the United States and President Donald Trump, who had endorsed De la Espriella. He also accused his opponent’s campaign of mass vote-buying and AI-driven manipulation. De la Espriella, a millionaire lawyer who had never held elected office, campaigned on a promise of “iron fist” security policies and announced that Colombia would join the US-led “Shield of the Americas” coalition against drug cartels. Trump, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were among the foreign leaders who quickly congratulated him.

The European Union’s 150-strong observer mission stated it found no evidence of irregularities, and the Registraduría highlighted the unprecedented precision of the count. Petro, who had initially suggested the vote could be annulled due to alleged software vulnerabilities, announced on Tuesday that he would begin the formal handover process. Cepeda, as the runner-up, is entitled to a Senate seat and pledged to lead a “democratic, vigilant and constructive opposition”, while warning of civil disobedience if authoritarian measures were attempted. His Pacto Histórico coalition will be the largest single bloc in a fragmented Congress, forcing the president-elect to negotiate a governing coalition.

Viewed from Washington, De la Espriella’s victory restores a close ally in a strategically important Andean nation after years of friction with Petro, who had severed diplomatic ties with Israel and clashed with Trump over migration and drug policy. The result also extends a continental trend: once De la Espriella is sworn in, only four Latin American countries will be governed by the left. Mexico’s governing Morena party, however, rejected the outcome and demanded a vote-by-vote recount, citing its own contested 2006 election. The National Electoral Council is expected to formally declare the president-elect within days, after which the transition teams will begin work on the handover scheduled for 7 August.