The National Electoral Council (CNE) certified Abelardo de la Espriella as the country’s new president after scrutinizing Sunday’s tally sheets.

According to the CNE, De la Espriella received 12,960,166 votes, 624 more than had been counted by the National Registry, which organized the election.

The leftist Ivan Cepeda received 400 votes less than counted by the National Registry and ended up with 2,708,312 votes, despite challenging almost half of the tally sheets.

Cepeda conceded defeat earlier on Wednesday after electoral judges struck down most challenges and the CNE refused to recount votes cast abroad.

French observers of NGO Cohesia said that the electoral process was “marked by serious democratic deficiencies that compromise its integrity.”

In just 48 hours, the COHESIA mission received nearly 5,000 documents submitted by citizens reporting alleged irregularities. Most of these reports concern allegations of tampering with E14 forms, forgery or missing signatures, manipulation of results, cases of deceased individuals appearing as voters, and serious allegations related to the manipulation of results at multiple consulates, whether in the United States, Venezuela, Ecuador, Australia, Spain, Switzerland, or Peru. Although our mission cannot verify each case individually, the volume and consistency of the reports warrant thorough investigations by the competent authorities.

Cohesia

The French NGO said that “any falsification of election records, vote-buying, or any attempt to manipulate the vote are crimes that cannot be erased by any political decision whatsoever.”