The rival campaigns in Colombia’s elections have both claimed that Sunday’s vote will be rigged against their candidates.

The accusations suggest that the losing candidate may refuse to recognize the election results.

Public confidence in the organizer of the elections, national registrar Alexander Vega, plummeted after major irregularities in the congressional elections in March, according to the independent Electoral Observation Mission (MOE).

Opposition accusations

Senator Gustavo Petro on campaign (Image: Twitter)

Opposition leader Gustavo Petro, who won the first round of the elections, told Spanish newspaper El País on Tuesday that Vega had “a clear affinity” with his rival, outsider Rodolfo Hernandez.

Furthermore, Petro said that “we detected alterations in the software” that would have corrupted the results of the first round of elections last month.

They did not allow us to carry out the technical audit and the registrar failed to comply with the court ruling [that ordered an independent audit].

Senator Gustavo Petro

In a response, the national registrar said that the opposition candidate “must accept the results” despite the fact that the opposition’s suspicions are shared with independent election observers.

Fraud claims by the outsider campaign

Rodolfo Hernandez (L) and Ingrid Betancourt (Image: Twitter)

The campaign of Hernandez also said that “there will be fraud” on Sunday.

In an interview with news website El Independiente, former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt said that “Petro is buying two million votes.”

All congressmen have been approached by the Petro campaign to offer them 200 million pesos as a starting point to bring them votes.  They have all the money in the world: from the cartels, from Venezuela, from the businessmen who owe them favors.

Ingrid Betancourt

Betancourt or the Hernandez campaign provided no evidence that would support the fraud claim.

The far-right party of President Ivan Duque, whose candidate Federico Gutierrez lost in the first round on May 29, has been promoting a conspiracy theory that blamed its defeat in the congressional elections on an alleged conspiracy between the opposition, the national registry and one of the election software companies.

Gutierrez last week pressed criminal charges against Petro’s “criminal gang,” last week, claiming that leaked videos of opposition campaign strategy meetings provided evidence of illegal activity.

According to Petro, these videos were the result of illegal spying on the opposition.

Watergate-like scandal escalates electoral tensions in Colombia

Election observers concerned about violence and “electoral peace.”

MOE director Alejandra Barrios (Image: MOE)

MOE director Alejandra Barrios warned that the national registrar’s failure to adequately respond to the irregularities in the March vote threatened “electoral peace” in Colombia.

The MOE additionally raised the alarm that this year’s elections became the most violent in more than a decade in April already.

The fraud claims are particularly delicate because neither candidate was able to secure a convincing lead in the election polls.

Foreign observers blast government meddling in Colombia’s elections

What happens in the event of fraud?

Electoral magistrates recount votes that were cast in the congressional elections (Image: Adriaan Alsema)

Both candidates can demand a recount of votes of individual polling stations if they can provide evidence of possible fraud after polls have closed.

The National Registry additionally allowed both campaigns to audit the vote-counting software, but has denied access to independent election observers.

The preliminary results of the elections are expected to be announced on Sunday evening.

The announcement of the final results that follow a scrutiny by the National Electoral Council are not expected until next week.