Juan Daniel Oviedo has decided not to support either of the two candidates who will compete in the presidential runoff on June 21. In a video message posted on his social media on Wednesday morning, the former vice-presidential candidate alongside the Uribista Paloma Valencia acknowledges his resounding defeat and assures that neither the left-wing senator Iván Cepeda nor the far-right lawyer Abelardo de La Espriella represent him.
Read more The cave lion was not a lion: DNA reveals a species with nearly two million years of its own history
“This country does not deserve a government that disregards electoral results,” said Oviedo referring to Cepeda and especially President Gustavo Petro, who have cast doubts on the legitimacy of the first-round results in which they placed second. “Nor one that discriminates against historically invisible minorities,” continued the former director of the National Department of Statistics, DANE, directly alluding to the homophobic comments he suffered from Abelardo de La Espriella. He titled the video Against rights or against the Constitution?, implying that he does not agree with the country proposals of the candidates competing for the presidency on June 21.
Against rights or against the Constitution? pic.twitter.com/NHIQW9hIWf
— Juan Daniel Oviedo (@JDOviedoAr) June 3, 2026
Oviedo also questioned that Cepeda “puts institutional stability at risk” and that De la Espriella “intends to destroy those who think differently.” At the end of the short video, he left the door open to participate in other elections, particularly the Bogotá mayoral race in October 2027, after having run for the same position in 2023 and unexpectedly finishing second. “My cause is to be here on June 22 to defend the results, the country’s stability, and the rights of all Colombians.”
The former DANE director insisted on the need for debates and proposals for this final stretch of the campaign. “When politics opens the door again to do politics in favor of something, we will be here. Today, the least Colombia deserves is that there be debates among the winning candidates. We want to know what Colombia they want and with whom they will govern.” Oviedo also criticized Paloma Valencia’s strategy: “no more coffees, more debates.”
For his part, former presidential candidate Mauricio Lizcano, who garnered just under 53,000 votes to place a distant seventh this Sunday, also announced that he will not support either of the two candidates who advanced to the runoff. He has said that, “in the face of the polarization exercised last Sunday,” he will conduct citizen oversight from an artificial intelligence platform to monitor the next president of Colombia. The same was decided by Nuevo Liberalismo, the party of former aspirant Juan Manuel Galán, which left its membership free. “Nuevo Liberalismo informs the public that it has not granted institutional support to any campaign, candidacy, organization, or proselytizing activity within the framework of the current political and electoral process.”
