Presidential candidate Daniel Quintero withdrew from the internal consultation of the Historic Pact that will take place this Sunday, October 26.

The former mayor of Medellín announced his withdrawal from that mechanism to elect a single candidate from that political sector, accusing the National Electoral Council (CNE) of"killing" those elections in which the left would elect one of the candidates who will face each other in March 2026 in the consultation of the broad front.

“The CNE killed the Historic Pact consultation by turning it, against our will, into an interparty consultation to prevent us from participating in the Broad Front consultation. We will not fall into that trap. For this reason, I have requested my withdrawal from the consultation,” Quintero said.

Without the former mayor of Medellín on the ballot, only Senator Iván Cepeda and former Health Minister Carolina Corcho will face each other in that contest, reducing a mechanism that would have almost a dozen pre-candidates to just two in the contest that will take place in a matter of days.

"The CNE and the Registry changed the rules of the game today. They turned the Historic Pact for the Presidency into an interparty consultation, violating the agreement we, the candidates, signed, which guaranteed our participation in the March consultation," Quintero said. However, the pact the candidate is referring to had only been signed by them.

Quintero then accused the "establishment" and the "right" of wanting to prevent the left from competing in a broad front in March 2026. He also emphasized that his participation in the internal consultation of the Historic Pact would pose a legal risk to his presidential aspirations.

On Tuesday afternoon, the CNE denied the Historic Pact's requests to print new ballots for the presidential referendum that included the movement's logo, arguing that the request for the internal referendum was made by the Communist, Democratic Pole, and Patriotic Union parties. Therefore, they considered this mechanism to be an interparty referendum.

The CNE killed the Historic Pact consultation by turning it, against our will, into an interparty consultation to prevent us from participating in the Broad Front consultation. We are not going to fall into that trap. For this reason, I have requested my withdrawal from it.

— Daniel Quintero 🇨🇴 (@QuinteroCalle) October 15, 2025

President Gustavo Petro came out in support of Quintero and accused the CNE of failing to guarantee the implementation of the participation mechanism."The National Electoral Council has not provided the necessary guarantees for the implementation of the Historic Pact consultation. It is forcibly thwarting it," Petro warned.

This Sunday, October 26, the Historic Pact will elect its sole presidential candidate and determine the order in which its congressional candidates will appear on the Senate and House of Representatives lists.