The former president of the Senate Efraín Cepeda, one of the greatest opponents of the government of Gustavo Petro, announced that he will aspire to the presidency in the 2026 elections. During a conservative party event in Ibagué, capital of the department of Tolima (Center), Senator Cepeda said: “In front of this beautiful people from Tolima, I threw myself to the presidency of the Republic.”
Cepeda, 75, was president of the Senate between 2024 and 2025, in which he received harsh criticism from Petrowho came to offend him verbally in some public events for opposing his reforms.
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The conservative applicant, who is an industrial economist and specialist in high finance, is a senator since 1994 and is one of the most visible faces of his party, Especially since he faces the president verbally and became one of the main opposition figures.
The congressman thus enters a contest in which at least 69 Colombians have registered committees to find the signatures that allow them to guarantee their candidacy for the presidential elections of May 2026.
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In the list of the Registry, names known as those of the former Minister Mauricio Lizcano, Mauricio Cárdenas and Luis Gilberto Murillo appear; The former mayor of Bogotá Claudia López; the journalist Vicky Dávila; the lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella or the former governor of the department of Antioquia Aníbal Gaviria. The former senator David Luna, the former director of the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) Juan Daniel Oviedo and former Interior Minister Daniel Palacios.
Apart from these 69 candidates, Colombia has the presidential applicants proposed by the parties, as is the case of Cepeda. In that sense, by the right -wing democratic center the senators seek the presidency Paloma Valencia, María Fernanda Cabal, Andrés Guerra and Paola Holguín, as well as Miguel Uribe Londoñofather of the murdered congressman Miguel Uribe Turbay.
In the deck of the official Historical Pact, Senators María José Pizarro, Gloria Flórez and Iván Cepeda appear; Former Gloria Inés Ramírez, Susana Muhamad and Carolina Cork; the social leader Ali Bantú Ashanti; the former director of the Department of Social Prosperity Gustavo Bolívar and the former mayor of Medellín Daniel Quintero. Meanwhile, former senator Juan Manuel Galán will appear for the Nuevo Liberalismo Party and the former mayor of Medellín Sergio Fajardo will do so for dignity & commitment.
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The first round of the Colombian presidential elections will be fulfilled on May 31, 2026 and, if necessary, the second will be held on June 21. The winner of the elections will assume the Head of State of Colombia on August 7 of next year.
EFE
