Colombian Elections
AS OF 2026-08-30 · 85 CONTESTS · presidential runoff, 21 June 2026 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
Next election · congressional and presidential, expected 2030 · Capital · Bogota in the metro rankings →
Colombia's presidential record from 1825 to June 2026 and its congressional record from the Liberal Republic onwards: election by the sovereign states, the Conservative hegemony, the Violencia, sixteen years in which the two parties simply divided the country between them, and a runoff era that has produced the sharpest turns in the republic's history.
Source: Wikipedia election articles · as of 2026-08-30
Senate seats
108
100 elected nationally, plus reserved seats
Contests on file
85
June 2026
49.7%
de la Espriella over Cepeda by under a point
Presidential elections
Every Colombian presidential contest from 1825, newest first. The elections of 1860 to 1884 were decided by the nine sovereign states rather than by voters, so they carry a winner and no figures.
Two rounds · 1994–2026
The 1991 constitution introduced a runoff, and every election since has gone to one. It has produced the widest swings in Colombian politics: Uribe's outright first-round win in 2002, the peace referendum that followed Santos, Gustavo Petro as the first left-wing president in 2022, and in June 2026 Abelardo de la Espriella beating Iván Cepeda by less than a point.
The open contest · 1978–1990
The pact lapsed and the presidency became a real two-party race again, decided in one round by simple plurality. Three presidential candidates were murdered in the run-up to the 1990 election.
The National Front · 1958–1974
The parties agreed in 1957 to alternate the presidency between them for sixteen years and to divide every elected body equally. Four presidents were elected under it, each of them the only candidate his half of the pact could nominate. The last of the four contests, in 1970, was won by 1.6 points against a former dictator whose supporters believed the count had been altered, and a guerrilla movement took its name from the date.
The Liberal Republic and the Violencia · 1934–1949
Sixteen years of Liberal presidents, then the split of 1946 that let the Conservatives back in on a minority, then the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in April 1948 and the undeclared civil war that killed perhaps two hundred thousand people. The 1949 election was contested by one candidate because the Liberals refused to take part in it.
Regeneration and the Conservative hegemony · 1886–1930
Núñez's Regeneration replaced the federal republic with a centralised one in 1886 and the Conservatives held the presidency for forty-four years. The Thousand Days' War and the loss of Panama fall inside the period, and it ends when the Conservatives split in 1930 and let Olaya Herrera through on 45%.
The sovereign states · 1860–1884
Under the federal constitutions of 1858 and 1863 the president was chosen by the nine states, each casting one vote, and a candidate needed five. These contests have no popular vote at all and appear here with the winner and no figures, because the article records states won rather than ballots cast. Presidential terms ran two years and the country fought several civil wars across the period.
Election by the colleges · 1825–1856
For its first thirty years the republic chose presidents through provincial electoral colleges and, when they failed to produce a majority, through congress. The figures here are the electors' votes, not a popular ballot, and the men in them are the founders: Bolívar, Santander, Páez, Márquez, Mosquera.
Congressional elections
Colombia's congressional elections, newest first, reported as the Senate. The National Front years divide each party's total between its factions, because that is what voters were choosing between.
The 1991 constitution · 1991–2026
The new constitution created a 100-seat Senate elected as a single national district, which was meant to break the regional machines and instead produced hundreds of personal lists. The 2003 reform imposed a threshold and forced parties to run one list each, cutting the field from sixty-odd parties to about twenty. In 2026 the Historic Pact topped the Senate poll with 25 of the 100 elected seats, the best result the Colombian left has recorded.
After the pact · 1978–1990
Competition returned and the Liberals won every congressional election of the period, usually with a majority of the Senate. It was also the most violent electoral era in Colombian history: the Unión Patriótica, formed out of the 1985 peace talks, had thousands of its members and two of its presidential candidates murdered.
The National Front · 1958–1974
The two parties ended the Violencia by agreeing to share everything: the seats in congress were split equally between Liberals and Conservatives for sixteen years, and voters chose between factions of their own party rather than between parties. The tables here show that, faction by faction. Everyone outside the pact, including the ANAPO movement that grew to a fifth of the vote, could win support but not seats.
Rojas and the junta · 1951–1953
Congress was shut in November 1949 and the elections of 1951 and 1953 were contested by the Conservatives alone, the Liberals having withdrawn. General Rojas Pinilla took power in 1953 and the Constituent Assembly that confirmed him was appointed rather than elected.
The Liberal Republic · 1931–1949
The Liberals took congress in 1931 after fifty years of Conservative hegemony and held it at every election for eighteen years, with universal male suffrage from 1936 and majorities above 60%. The period ends badly: Gaitán's murder in 1948, the Violencia that followed, and the closure of congress by President Gómez in 1949.
The republic's first congress · 1825
Gran Colombia's congress and presidency were chosen by provincial electoral colleges rather than by voters, and the record of the period that survives in this atlas is a single election. The century that followed had congressional elections too; the articles for them are not in the source used here, which is why the legislative series restarts in 1931.
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure.
Presidential turnout
Colombia has the lowest participation of any large democracy in the Americas: under 50% at most elections since 1970, and 57.9% in the 2026 runoff, its highest in decades.
The winner's decisive-round share
One-round pluralities under 45% were normal before 1991. Every winner since has needed a majority, and two of the last three runoffs were decided by fewer than three points.
Records & superlatives
Highest presidential turnout
83.5%
1930
Lowest presidential turnout
30.2%
1938
Narrowest win
34.5%
José Ignacio de Márquez, 1833
Most seats won
118
Colombian Liberal Party, 1937
National Front contests
4
1958 to 1974, with the presidency alternating by written pact
Elections decided by the states
11
1860 to 1884, nine states with one vote each and no popular ballot
How Colombian elections work
A president elected in two rounds
Since the 1991 constitution the president needs an absolute majority, so all but one election has gone to a runoff four weeks later. The term is four years, and re-election was allowed in 2005 and abolished again in 2015.
A Senate elected as one national district
All 100 elected senators are chosen by the whole country voting as a single constituency, with two further seats reserved for indigenous communities. It was designed to break the regional machines and instead produced hundreds of personal lists until a threshold was imposed in 2003. The congressional figures on this page are the Senate.
The National Front
Between 1958 and 1974 the Liberals and Conservatives alternated the presidency by written agreement and split every elected body equally between them. Voters chose between factions of one party, which is why the tables of those years read as lists of names rather than parties. Those rows are marked as contests on a tilted field.
Congress votes in March, the president in May
The two are held eleven weeks apart, which makes the March congressional result the closest thing Colombia has to a national primary. In 2026 the Historic Pact topped the Senate poll in March and lost the presidency in June.