Colombia’s election court finds no evidence of mass fraud in 1st round vote – Colombia News

Colombia’s top electoral authority, the National Electoral Council (CNE), confirmed the outcome of the presidential election’s first round after finding no evidence of the fraud alleged by outgoing President Gustavo Petro.

In a ruling that followed the scrutiny of votes, the CNE confirmed that far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella and leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda were elected to the second round of the election.

The scrutiny, which corrects wrongly counted tally sheets, found no evidence of mass fraud that could have changed the outcome.

De la Espriella won the first round with 44.5% of the votes. His rival received 41.7% of the votes, a result, according to the CNE.

The far-right’s shock victory on Sunday triggered fraud allegations by both Cepeda and the president.

The left-wing candidate withdrew his allegations on Monday, but Petro continued to publish fraud allegations until Wednesday.

The president dismissed the count of the National Registry, which has been plagued by irregularities and has lost much of his credibility since the congressional elections of 2014.

Petro said that he would recognize the CNE’s official results, but did not do so immediately after their publication.

Instead of focusing on fraud concerns, the Cepeda campaign began reaching out to defeated liberal candidates in an attempt to receive their endorsements.

Meanwhile, the base of the candidate’s leftist Historic Pact party and sympathetic social organizations resumed their grassroots campaign to “defeat fascism” and secure another four years in power in the June 21 vote.