Roughly a year after mass protests—sparked by an unpopular tax reform but ultimately encompassing discontent about economic despair, inequality, police brutality, and a rise in armed violence—swept the nation, Colombians will take to the polls to elect their new president. The first round of the vote to replace President Iván Duque, who is constitutionally limited to one term, will fall on May 29; should no candidate win a majority of votes, a runoff between the two candidates with the highest number of votes will be held on June 19. Voters’ dissatisfaction with the right-wing president, whose public approval rating stood at only 20 percent in February 2022, and his party may prompt a broader political shift away from historically conservative leadership. Interparty consultations held on March 13 seemingly signaled public support for such a change: the consultations, which function as primaries to narrow the candidate pool, yielded an important win for leftist Senator Gustavo Petro, who had previously lost to President Duque in the 2018 presidential runoff. 

Colombia is among the longest-standing democracies in Latin America, but one with a history of widespread violence and serious human rights abuses. Public institutions have demonstrated the capacity to check executive power, and the country’s main left-wing guerrilla group signed a peace accord in 2016. Nonetheless, Colombia faces enormous challenges in consolidating peace and guaranteeing political rights and civil liberties outside of major urban areas.

Freedom House has identified the following as key digital interference issues to watch ahead of election day:

• Harassment and violence: Online journalists, and digital media personnel more broadly, face attacks and harassment by state and non-state actors in connection with their reporting. Security forces deployed violent force against digital media personnel covering 2021 protests, for instance, and journalists sometimes receive death threats for reporting on corruption. Paired with Colombia’s history of electoral violence, the dangerous climate for online journalists may encourage self-censorship around political issues, limiting the electorate’s access to objective reporting and hindering the public’s ability to make informed decisions surrounding the vote.
• Cyberattacks: Online outlets, journalists, and government institutions have occasionally fallen victim to cyberattacks in recent years. In March 2020, a cyberattack rendered online news outlet La Oreja Roja inaccessible shortly after it published an article discussing deceased drug trafficker José Guillermo “Neñe” Hernández’s suspected involvement in a vote-buying campaign during the 2018 presidential election. Earlier, in the lead-up to 2018 parliamentary elections, more than 50,000 cyberattacks were recorded against the web platform of the country’s national voter registry. Cyberattacks targeting outlets and journalists could limit access to information about voting or independent reporting on candidates, while breaches of elections infrastructure may compromise actual or perceived electoral integrity and sensitive voter data. 

Colombia has a score of 66 out of 100, with 100 representing the least vulnerability in terms of election integrity, on Freedom House’s Election Vulnerability Index, which is based on a selection of key election-related indicators. The score reflects a democracy bolstered by well-administered and competitive elections, but encumbered by rule of law deficits, restrictions to assembly, and pressures on media. The country is rated Partly Free in Freedom in the World 2021, with a score of 65 out of 100 with respect to its political rights and civil liberties, and Partly Free in Freedom on the Net 2021, with an internet freedom score of 65 out of 100. To learn more about these annual Freedom House assessments, please visit the Colombia country reports in Freedom in the World and Freedom on the Net.