Colombia’s far-right Democratic Center party announced it will postpone its 2026 primary that was set later this month amid infighting.

The party was set to pick a presidential candidate on November 28, but announced in a press statement that the deadline was postponed to February 2026.

The Democratic Center was also forced to reconsider the mechanism with which to elect a candidate after the pollster that was expected to conduct a primary survey backed out, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais.

How did we get here?

Initially, the Brazilian polling firm Atlas Intel was going to conduct a poll to see which of the party’s five primary candidates had the most votes.

The pollster reportedly pulled its bid to organize the primary over fears that an increasingly public row between two candidates, Miguel Uribe and Senator Maria Fernanda Cabal, could affect its reputation.

In a letter to the director of the party, Gabriel Vallejo, more than 200 young party members asked for the exclusion of Uribe.

According to the letter, Uribe contacted the polling firm in an attempt to manipulate the vote. When this failed, the candidate allegedly challenged the Brazilians’ credibility.

In a response to the letter, Cabal accused Uribe of trying to sabotage the primary.

What is the intention behind sabotaging a process that was agreed upon a year ago? What is the intention behind attacking Director Gabriel Vallejo? What is the intention behind leaking private minutes to various media outlets? We need to see who benefits from this desire to create an implosion??? The country comes first, before an internal debate driven by self-interest.

Maria Fernanda Cabal

How to move forward

Currently, the party remains undecided on how to move forward.

In a post on social media platform X, the party president proposed create an electoral commission to oversee its efforts to organize a primary poll with one or two candidates to reduce the internal tensions.

Vallejo said that the party on Thursday or Friday will announce a deciding mechanism that would allow its candidate or candidates to take part??in an anti-left multipartite primary that is set for March next year.