On March 8, 2026, Colombia is scheduled to hold a key electoral day to define the Congress of the Republic during the period 2026-2030.
More than 41 million people are authorized to vote in the country and abroad, according to the National Registry of Civil Status, which provided more than 13,700 positions and 125,259 voting stations.
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Apart from electing senators and representatives to the House, those who participate may request an additional card for interparty consultations that will define presidential candidacies.
The mechanism for selecting senators depends on the type of list registered by each community. In Colombia there are open lists with preferential voting and closed lists without preferential voting..
In an open list, the parties present a list of candidates and the voter can mark the number of their preference. The vote is added to both the party and the selected candidate. The candidates who obtain the most personal votes will access the seats achieved by the community, regardless of the initial order of registration.
In the closed list, the voter can only mark the party logo. The order of the candidates was defined internally by the political organization and cannot be modified on voting day. The seats obtained by the party will be distributed according to the official list, without there being individual competition between candidates on election day.
In the 2026 Senate elections, the communities that opted for a closed list are: Democratic Center, Patriots, Safe and Prosperous Colombia, Historical Pact, Oxygen and With All for Colombia. In these cases, the card only presents the party symbol.
For their part, the U Party, the Colombian Conservative Party, the Radical Change Coalition – Soul, We Believe, the Broad Unitary Front, the Citizen Force Coalition, the Green Alliance for Colombia, the National Salvation Movement, MIRA, New Liberalism and the Colombian Liberal Party registered an open list. Voters will be able to dial the number of the candidate of their choice and individual support will be decisive for the allocation of seats.
The counting system varies depending on the modality. In the open lists, those who obtain the most personal votes will occupy the seats won by the party. In closed lists, the assignment will be strictly in accordance with the order pre-established by the community.
For the period 2026-2030, 100 senators will be chosen per national constituency, 2 for indigenous communities and 1 additional for the presidential candidate who obtains the second largest vote, totaling 103 members in the Senate.. In the House of Representatives, 183 members will be elected, distributed among territorial representatives, special constituencies and Colombians abroad.
During the day, three interparty consultations will also be enabled: Consultation of Solutions, The Great Consultation for Colombia and Front for Life. In each consultation, voters will be able to mark only one option; If more than one candidate is selected, the vote will be annulled.
The allocating figure system will be used to distribute the seats between the parties, both in open and closed lists, according to the votes obtained by each community. The modality chosen by each party will affect the form of participation and the real impact of each vote on the election of the new senators.
These are some of the most common concerns: how to mark the card correctly and whether it is possible to vote for different parties. Voters have the option of choosing different parties for the Senate and House, since they are independent electoral processes. However, only one choice can be made on each card.
The annulment of the vote occurs mainly when the voter marks more than one option on the same card. This type of error generally responds to confusion or lack of information about the rules. Therefore, the authorities advise checking the ballot carefully before placing it in the ballot box.
