Crisis in Colombia elections: Petro refuses to recognize results! '800 thousand new IDs added to the system'

In the first round of the presidential election held in the Latin American country of Colombia, no candidate was able to secure the necessary majority. Therefore, the country will head to the polls again in a second round to determine its head of state.

According to the National Civil Registry (Registraduria Nacional del Estado Civil), which announced the unofficial results, far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella of the Homeland Defenders Movement (Defensores de la Patria) received 43.62 percent of the vote and finished the first round in the lead.

Ivan Cepeda, the candidate for the ruling Historical Pact (Pacto Historico), placed second with 41.13 percent of the vote, successfully qualifying for the second round.

"800 THOUSAND NEW IDS ADDED TO THE SYSTEM"

Following the election, striking statements came from current President Gustavo Petro. Posting on his social media account, Petro reacted to the announced preliminary results.

Arguing that the data announced by the National Civil Registry has no legal validity, Petro stated the following:

"As President, I do not recognize the preliminary count results conducted by the private company of the Bautista brothers. The algorithms of the counting and auditing software, which should remain stable under normal circumstances, were interfered with 3 times in the last week, and 800 thousand new IDs that do not appear in the official population records were included in the system."

RAISED ALLEGATIONS OF IRREGULARITIES

Petro claimed that there are contradictions between the official voter lists and the information in the vote-counting system.

Stating that he does not trust the data announced on election night, Petro said, "I do not trust the results announced on election night. I believe there may be irregularities in the voter records. For this reason, I will not accept the preliminary count data, but rather the results that will be announced at the end of the official counting process conducted under the supervision of judges."

WHO ARE THE BAUTISTA BROTHERS?

According to reports in the Colombian press, the "Bautista brothers" mentioned in Petro's statements are identified as Camilo Bautista Palacios and his brothers, the owners of the company Thomas Greg and Sons, which undertakes public tenders such as election organization, vote-counting systems, and passport and ID production.

News Source: 12punto