The political parties vying for power in Colombia’s 2026 elections

With congressional elections drawing near, Colombia’s main parties have picked their candidate lists and campaign leaders.

The parties’ and their candidates are supported by a collection of political machineries, activists and political barons that defend a complicated collage of political interests.

Historic Pact (20 seats) Carolina Corcho

The Historic Pact is Colombia’s main leftist bloc, and is made up of former leftist and progressive parties that recently underwent a fusion. Colombia Humana, the party of President Gustavo Petro, is still in the process of joining.

The Senate campaign will be led by Carolina Corcho, who served as Health Minister under Petro from 2022 until 2023 and was the runner-up in the party’s primary in October.

With the exception of some senor politicians on the top, the party’s Senate candidate list is mainly made up by people who rose from the world of labor and human rights organizations.

Conservative Party (15 seats) David Barquil

The Conservative Party has been very close to power in Colombia since its formation in the 1800’s.

The party’s Senate list is led by former Senator David Barguil, who is being investigated by the Supreme Court for his alleged involvement in influence peddling.

More than any other party, the conservatives rely on the political machineries of regional clans that are represented on the Conservative Party lists for the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Liberal Party (14 seats) Lidio Garcia

The Liberal Party is Colombia’s longest-living political party and controlled by the family of former President Cesar Gaviria.

The lead candidate to campaign for the Senate is the current President of the Senate, Lidio Garcia, who has been accused of corruption in his native city Cartagena.

Like the Conservative Party, the liberals rely heavily on regional clans that are able to “motivate” voters on election day.

Democratic Center (13 seats) Andres Forero

The Democratic Center is a far-right party created by former president Alvaro Uribe. The party is currently the main opposition party in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.

Senator Andres Forero, the son of an industrial magnate, became the party’s Senate campaign after almost all the party’s well-known candidates decided to run in the Democratic Center’s presidential primary.

Uribe, who left the Senate in an attempt to evade criminal investigations, put himself on the 25th position of the Senate list in an attempt to boost the party’s success.

The party is undergoing one of the worst crisis in its 11-year history because of the assassination of the Democratic Center’s leading presidential hopeful and Senate chief, Miguel Uribe, earlier this year.

Radical Change (11 seats) Carlos Motoa

Radical Change is a right-wing opposition party led by former Vice President German Vargas.

The Senate campaign will be led by Carlos Fernando Motoa.

The party was one of multiple dissident Liberal Party factions that formed in the late 1990s in response to a scandal caused by dirty money entering the liberals’ campaign coffers.

During the 2000’s, Cambio Radical led more than half of its lawmakers because of their ties to paramilitary organization AUC. The “papapolitics” scandal gave the party the fame of being among the most corrupt in Congress.

U Party (10 seats) Juan Felipe Lemus

The U Party was founded by Uribe supporters in politics in 2005 to provide the former president’s second term in office between 2006 and 2010 with the necessary congressional support.

The party stopped being “Uribista” after a split between the party’s leadership and Uribe over peace talks between guerrilla group FARC and the administration of former President Juan Manuel Santos.

Since then, the party has been behaving like a liberal party of which the left wing in Congress has explicitly supported Petro after his election in 2022.

Green Alliance (8 seats) Luis Eduardo Garzon

The Green Alliance is a left-liberal coalition party with outspoken right-wing members amongst the top of its ranks. 

The Senate candidate list is being list by senior left-wing politician Luis Garzon, a former trade unionist, Labor Minister and Mayor of Bogota.

The top of Garzon’s list is dominated by a mix of progressive and conservative politicians who have represented the party in the Congress in the past decade.

Ahora Colombia Coalition, Juan Sebastian Gomez Juan Sebastian Gomez

Ahora Colombia is an opposition party composed of the progressive Dignidad & Compromiso party of former Senator Enrique Robledo, the center-right New Liberalism party of the Galan family and the evangelical MIRA party.

Its leading candidate for the Senate is Juan Sebastian Gomez, who is currently a House Representative for New Liberalism.

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