Colombia will have fourteen candidates in the presidential elections on May 31st. The deadline for registration with the National Electoral Registry, the entity organizing the elections, concluded this Friday. One of the last to register was former Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the United States Luis Gilberto Murillo, who did so alongside his running mate, Luz María Zapata, former president of the Colombian Association of Capital Cities (Asocapitales). Also at the last minute, retired Army General Gustavo Matamoros Camacho registered with the support of the Colombian Ecologist Party. With these two candidacies, the 2026 presidential race reaches 14 candidates, making it the second election with the most aspirants since the 1991 Constitution was approved, and only surpassed by the 1994 election, which had 18 candidates, according to data compiled by the La Silla Vacía portal. Candidates from the right and center. Earlier, Senator Paloma Valencia, of the uribist Democratic Center party, as well as former Bogotá Mayor Claudia López and former Medellín Mayor Sergio Fajardo, both from the political center, formallyized their aspirations. Valencia went to the Bogotá Registry accompanied by former President Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), founder of the Democratic Center, and her vice-presidential running mate, independent economist Juan Daniel Ovidio. The candidate won last Sunday the cross-party consultation of the right with 3.23 million votes, held in parallel with the legislative elections, while Ovidio came in second with 1.25 million ballots, a result that exceeded expectations and made him the chosen one to accompany her as vice president. At the registration event, Uribe stated that Valencia and Ovidio's candidacy represents an 'illusion' for those who hope to restore security in the country. Former Bogotá Mayor Claudia López also registered her candidacy this Friday, naming former Delegate for Health People's Defender Leonardo Huerta as her vice-presidential running mate. 'We are going to register a new history for Colombia, a history in which the Presidency is for the solutions for the people and not for the fights of politicians,' she stated in comments to the press. Former Medellín Mayor Sergio Fajardo also registered his candidacy this Friday and chose former Bogotá Secretary of Education Edna Bonilla as his running mate. 'We are going to reach every corner of Colombia,' Fajardo expressed after registering his candidacy, and added that Bonilla 'is going to shine with her own light.' This is how the candidacies are shaping up. In recent days, the rest of the presidential slates have also been defined, such as that of Iván Cepeda, candidate of the Historical Pact, the party of President Gustavo Petro, who announced indigenous leader Aída Quilcué as his running mate; and the far-right Abelardo de la Espriella, who registered on Thursday in Cali former Minister José Manuel Restrepo. According to the latest polls, Cepeda and De la Espriella are the favorites, followed by Valencia, López, and Fajardo. Other aspirants are former senators Roy Barreras, Mauricio Lizcano, and Miguel Uribe Londoño; leftist politician Clara López; former Santa Marta Mayor Carlos Caicedo; and entrepreneurs Sondra Macollins and Santiago Botero. At the last minute, former Senator Juan Fernando Cristo, former Minister Daniel Palacios, and former Comptroller Carlos Felipe Córdoba withdrew their aspirations. However, most registered candidates do not even reach 1% in polls. 'I present myself to you as a team player in this coalition, just a bricklayer, because I want this country immensely,' said the former statesman. Valencia, for her part, assured that the goal is to build a government that includes different political sectors, alluding to the fact that Ovidio, an openly homosexual man, disagrees with her on some social issues. 'Colombia needs something greater than ourselves.'
