Presidential Election, 8 March 2026

Floods and landslides 

From January 26, 2026, Colombia was hit by very heavy rainfall associated with an atypical cold front affecting the Caribbean region, lasting well into the month of March. While most of the country was affected, the northern, central and western parts were particularly hard-hit, causing floods, flash floods, overflowing rivers and landslides. The department of Córdoba was the worst affected, with about 78,000 affected people in that department alone, while large parts of the territory were inundated. By 6 March, the death toll across the country hit 44 fatalities, while 15,000 people were still evacuated from their homes. In total, more than 580,000 people were affected across 144 municipalities in 22 departments (Córdoba, Cauca, Antioquia, Nariño, Casanare, La Guajira, Santander, Chocó, Valle del Cauca, Bolívar, Magdalena, Sucre, Putumayo, Cesar, Cundinamarca, Atlántico, Bogotá, Guaviare, Caldas, Caquetá, Vichada and Meta). Approximately 23,000 houses were damaged, and thousands were completely destroyed (ECHO 2026). Flooding also caused extensive damage to agricultural land and critical infrastructure, particularly in rural areas (ReliefWeb 2026).  

Impact on the electoral process 

The heavy rains caused challenges for the 8 March election due to inundation of rural municipalities, damaged infrastructure, and limited access to polling stations. In Córdoba and parts of Sucre, the National Civil Registry (Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil) activated a special contingency plan to guarantee that the electoral process could proceed without postponement. Registrar Hernán Penagos publicly reaffirmed that the elections would be held as scheduled, emphasizing transparency, institutional continuity, and voter confidence despite the emergency (Jerez 2026).  

In Córdoba, at least 18 polling stations were relocated across municipalities including Montería, Cereté, Chinú, San Antero, Lorica and Tierralta due to flooding, infrastructure damage, and access constraints. Several of these polling locations, particularly schools, were also unavailable because they were being used as emergency shelters for displaced populations (Registraduría Nacional del Estado Civil 2026). In Montería, the state capital, 13 polling stations were relocated. To mitigate access challenges, local authorities deployed free buses to transfer voters from affected rural areas to their reassigned polling station (Bustamante 2026). In addition, mobile units were deployed to issue replacement identification documents to citizens who had lost them due to the floods (Jerez 2026). The emergency also affected post‑election procedures, as the designated vote‑counting venue (Centro de Convenciones) was repurposed as a Unified Command Post for emergency response operations, prompting the relocation of vote‑counting activities to alternative sites such as libraries and universities (Chica Noticias 2026). 

Similar measures were implemented in Antioquia, where heavy rains triggered landslides and damage to tertiary roads in mountainous municipalities, prompting the Registraduría to relocate several rural polling stations to urban areas (Londoño 2026). In Chocó, persistent rains and river overflows disrupted voting in peace‑seat constituencies (special congressional seats created by the 2016 peace accord to represent victims of the armed conflict and conflict‑affected communities), prompting the Registry to reinforce security and logistics teams and prepare contingency relocations to protect voting in sensitive post‑conflict areas (Morales Castillo 2026).  

Authors: Siri Björgengen and Nicolás Liendo