Colombia’s far-right presidential candidate Espriella wins first round of vote ahead of runoff
by Tiago Rogero South America correspondent from World news | The Guardian on (#760BV)
Lawyer and Trump admirer has risen rapidly in the polls and will face Ivan Cepeda in election runoff in three weeks
The far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won the first round of Colombia's presidential election on Sunday and will face senator Ivan Cepeda, the candidate backed by leftwing president Gustavo Petro, in the runoff.
With 99.97% of ballots counted, the outsider and Donald Trump admirer Espriella secured 43.7% of the vote - just over 10.3m votes - compared with 40.9% (about 9.6m votes) for Cepeda, a philosopher and human rights activist who has served as a senator since 2014.
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