MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petro drops constituent assembly bid 17 days before Colombia's presidential runoff

The electoral context ultimately weighed on the move

The committee that had promoted a National Constituent Assembly championed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on Thursday that it was halting the collection of signatures and withdrawing the project to reform the 1991 Constitution. The decision, taken 17 days before the June 21 presidential runoff, seeks to clear the way for the governing bloc's candidate, Senator Iván Cepeda, in a move that reshapes the electoral landscape.

The announcement was made by Wayúu indigenous leader Armando Wouriyu Valbuena, a member of the committee, who said the measure aims to build “broad consensus” capable of halting the advance of far-right sectors. The committee, which had gathered nearly two million signatures —of the five million it aimed to reach by July 20— said it would now focus its efforts on the candidacy of Cepeda and his running mate, Aída Quilcué, and on building a “Great National Agreement.”

Petro, who had pressed the project for much of his term, backed the decision on social media and said the priority now is to “define the next government.” The president had presented the assembly as a way to enact his social reforms in health, education and labor without going through Congress. The decision was reached after several meetings, including one on Wednesday night at the Catam air base in Bogotá.

The electoral context ultimately weighed on the move. Polls that for months placed Cepeda in the lead proved wrong: right-wing lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won the first round on May 31 with about 10.4 million votes, nearly 700,000 ahead of Cepeda. Seventeen days before the runoff, gathering support shifted from an option to a necessity.

Several centrist figures, such as former presidential candidate Sergio Fajardo —who won just over one million votes— and economist Juan Daniel Oviedo, declined to back either of the two remaining contenders, citing the assembly among their reservations about supporting Cepeda. Withdrawing the project is intended to smooth those agreements.

Petro had first raised the possibility of convening a constituent assembly in March 2024, in a speech in Cali, amid the stalling of his reforms in Congress. The idea clashed with a commitment Petro himself had signed in 2018, when he was a candidate, in a “decalogue” promoted by former Bogotá mayor Antanas Mockus that included not convening such a mechanism. The plan took shape again on May 1 this year, at an event in Medellín, before finally being suspended.