Bogotá, Colombia – On Sunday, Colombians will elect their representatives in Congress and begin to whittle down the long list of presidential candidates.
Some humanitarian organizations warn that in regions marked by violence, the integrity of the electoral and democratic process is under threat. President Gustavo Petro has also denounced transparency issues, publicly expressing doubts about the clarity of the polls.
But authorities have sought to reassure the public, unveiling on Wednesday a “Plan Democracy” which combines a mass security deployment with measures to guarantee the integrity of the democratic process.
Electoral integrity
The elections for both houses of Congress are scheduled for this Sunday, March 8, while citizens will also be able to select their preferred presidential candidate from a primary list, although notable frontrunners are not listed. Presidential elections will follow: one on May 31 and a potential second round on June 21.
But there are concerns over electoral fraud. On Tuesday, Petro revived unsubstantiated warnings he made in 2018 about electoral software and signaled that voting polls should be challenged (impugned). This request is highly controversial and unprecedented because, besides slowing down the vote-counting, it questions the democratic system itself.
The next day, the Ministers of Defense and Interior, the Commanders of the Armed Forces, the Inspector General, the National Registrar, and the Comptroller General met to define the protection and security measures to guarantee the free right to vote and present their “Plan Democracia 2026”.
During a press conference after the meeting, they responded to Petro’s remarks and shared details regarding the security measures taken to ensure a transparent election day.
“I want to call attention to this: It is completely valid to have doubts, and human errors can happen. However, impugnation is a resource meant only for those mistakes that are actually proven. It is an exceptional measure, not the norm,” said Carlos Hernán Rodríguez, the Comptroller General, who oversees funds given to candidates during the electoral process.
Hernán also revealed that all three votes – for the Senate, House of Representatives, and president – will be scanned and published.
“If all guarantees are provided and there is no evidence of irregularity, I truly believe that ‘bad faith’ should not be presumed,” he remarked. “The number of electoral witnesses is increasing to over 750,000, and we are moving from 190 auditors to nearly 10,000 auditors from different political parties.”
Security measures
Authorities also presented some of the measures taken to guarantee the electoral process, arguing that everything is in place to ensure voter confidence and security.
“We are talking about 120,000 members of the police trained to be at the polling stations; at the same time, 146,000 members of the army will be there to protect every one of the polling stations throughout the national territory,” said Armando Benedetti, the Minister of the Interior.
However, as organized crime groups like the ELN still have a presence and control over some territories, the action plan cannot be the same for all regions.
“We highlight 47 municipalities that correspond to 4% of the national territory… They are points and places where we have to deploy a different plan regarding security capacity, and they are categorized with the risk of violent threat,” noted the Minister of Defense, Pedro Sánchez.
Electoral violence: a shadow over the polls
This election season has already been marked by violence. Most notably, presidential candidate and senator Miguel Uribe Turbay was shot in June 2025, dying two months later from his injuries.
In the last few days, at least five new attacks against candidates have been recorded. In the Nariño department, the brother of Claudia Cabrera, a candidate for the House of Representatives, was murdered. In another case, María Bolívar Maury, a candidate for the House of Representatives in the Atlántico department, denounced a shooting attack against her vehicle.
In response, Armando Benedetti detailed enhanced protective measures for presidential candidates. He remarked that 12 committees have been created to protect 64 candidates and monitor their electoral processes.
Inspector General Gregorio Eljach also emphasized the efforts to protect the democratic exercise through what he calls “electoral peace”.
“We are trying to prevent or conjure episodes of extreme violence against Colombians,” said Eljach
He revealed that authorities have analyzed 39 variables to categorize security risks into three different scenarios, and this monitoring has shown positive results: “The number of points of extreme violence against the elections has been significantly reduced.”
In addition, the Minister of Defense revealed that this week, in the departments of La Guajira and Córdoba, the police seized 145 million Colombian pesos (roughly USD$36,250) and 434 million pesos in cash (roughly USD $108,500) related to vote-buying cases.
He shared this information as proof of the rigorous measures taken by authorities to safeguard the electoral process and prevent any election-related crimes, moving beyond just concerns of violence.
Defending democratic tradition
Despite Petro’s claims and recent cases of electoral violence, authorities insist that the rules of the game are the same as always.
“The electoral system is the same one that has elected the presidents of the last decades, including the current one,” said Hernán Penagos, the national registrar, who is responsible for ensuring transparency at the polls.
Authorities aim to reassure citizens that the country is ready to vote peacefully and democratically.
“We are various state establishments working together… The citizens have the guarantee that their vote can be cast with the confidence it deserves,” the Interior Minister, Armando Benedetti, concluded.
Featured image description: Officials meet to announce “Plan Democracia”.
Featured image credit: Colombia Procuraduria.
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