Petro Accuses Israel of Compromising Colombia's Vote Counting Software

Colombia's outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, accused Israel of compromising the software used for the country's preliminary vote count. On X, Petro recalled on Sunday that "it was warned that the Bautista brothers' software was vulnerable, according to the 2018 Council of State ruling, and that it should be replaced with public software."

"I timely requested an expert audit of the Bautista brothers' software, and the registrar did not allow it," he denounced.

The Colombian president stated that now, following the runoff, "we have evidence of a change in the IP addresses of several national registry servers. This means the software was compromised, and others wrote data for polling stations." He concluded that "the only entity in the world capable of doing this" is Israel.

Petro requested that a detailed list of the servers that were changed be sent to the judges, so that an expert audit of the electoral software—which was not conducted during the process but must be carried out during the scrutiny itself—can be performed. He also called for a new count of all votes at each table and a study of possible vulnerabilities to the electoral computer system and the tables that have been affected.

Right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, of the Defenders of the Homeland movement, is positioned as the virtual winner of Colombia's presidential elections, according to the preliminary vote count with 99.99% of tables processed. Based on these preliminary figures, De la Espriella reaches 49.66% of the votes, equivalent to 12,959,542 votes, compared to 48.70% obtained by left-wing senator Iván Cepeda of the Historical Pact, who totals 12,708,712 votes .

Petro urged caution through his X account, emphasizing that "no president can be proclaimed" until the definitive count concludes, and called on citizens to remain calm. Meanwhile, De la Espriella celebrated what he considers a victory in the preliminary count, sharing a video thanking supporters: "Thank you, Colombia." Iván Cepeda, while acknowledging the preliminary results favoring his opponent, warned they are not binding and announced his campaign would challenge approximately 33,000 tables nationwide.

Previously, Petro had warned U.S. President Donald Trump against any intervention in Colombia's presidential campaign, asserting that any interference would violate the Constitution after Trump reiterated his support for the right-wing candidate.