June 1 (UPI) — Colombia’s presidential election will go to a run-off vote in three weeks’ time after neither of the two main candidates garnered the 50% of votes required to win outright in the first round.

Abelardo de la Espriella narrowly beat his rival and favorite to win, Ivan Cepeda, with 43.7% of the vote in Sunday’s poll, compared with Cepeda’s 41%, after a campaign marred by drone strikes, abductions and murder, including the assassination of candidate Miguel Uribe in summer 2025.

Paloma Valencia, the candidate of Uribe’s Democratic Center party, threw her support behind de la Espriella, after coming in a very distant third with less than 7% of the vote, according to National Civil Registry preliminary results.

The run-off poll between political outsider de la Espriella and Cepeda, who is backed by sitting president Gustavo Petro, is scheduled for June 21.

Petro alleged voting irregularities had occurred, including the addition of hundreds of thousands of votes and said he awaited a review of the final results by judges. He himself is under investigation for alleged breaches of strict laws on election interference by Colombia’s House presidential watchdog.

Speaking on Sunday night, de la Espriella called the vote a “triumph for those of us who have never experienced living off the state’s teat” and vowed to “defeat tyranny, absolutism,” in the run-off.

Dubbed “The Tiger,” the 47-year-old lawyer campaigned on turning around the economy, cracking down on the drug cartels and drastically overhauling Colombia’s approach to security, which, as the world’s largest cocaine producer, directly impact the global narcotics trade, migration and stability in the region.

Since Petro came into office in 2022, his “total peace” approach of trying to make terms with both insurgents and armed criminal gangs saw their ranks swell, cocaine production surge to an all-time high and thousands of people forced to flee violence on the Venezuela border.

On the other hand, security forces have confiscated the largest ever volume of drugs during that time, according to Petro.

He has also shifted the dial of public debate from a focus solely on endemic violence to include issues like healthcare, the economy and graft — helping shift perceptions of the country.

With Cepeda campaigning as the continuity candidate on a platform promising to advance social inclusion, human rights, rural reform and consolidate Petro’s democratic reforms, the election was being seen as a referendum on Petro’s progressive model of government.

Petro’s Historical Pact coalition government is a merger of four socialist and left-leaning parties.