With all votes now counted in Peru’s presidential run-off election, socialist candidate Pedro Castillo has emerged as the victor, with 50.19% of votes. However, right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori, who garnered 8,730,712 votes to Castillo’s 8,800,486, has continued to allege electoral fraud.
The National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) is expected to formally declare Castillo as the winner in 10 to 12 days, following the completion of some formalities. ONPE said, “There are still pending minutes in the JEE (Special Jury of Elections) to conclude with the whole process of vote counting.” ONPE chief Corvetto Salinas has also dismissed Fujimori’s accusations, saying that authorities had ensured a “safe, quiet, clean, and transparent election.”
Fujimori, though, has requested electoral authorities to annul 200,000 votes and review another 300,000 votes that she has deemed ‘suspicious’. In fact, she said that the 802 minutes ONPE says it is yet to ‘conclude’ “represent 200,000 votes,” which could technically change the result of the election if she is proven right.
To this end, Fujimori released a statement saying, “Five hundred thousand votes are still at stake here, half a million votes nationwide, that we believe are essential to be analysed for the elections jury’s final count.” As early as Monday, when her lead was beginning to slip, Fujimori was already seeking to draw attention to a “series of irregularities which worry us and we think it’s important to highlight” and said that there was a “clear intention to boycott the will of the people.”
Castillo’s party, Perú Libre, however, has denied these allegations, and the candidate himself has said, “We should be respectful of the people’s will.”
Moreover, Castillo’s victory appears to have been acknowledged both at home and abroad. Argentine President Alberto Fernández tweeted that he had called “President-elect” Castillo to congratulate him on his victory and express Argentina’s interest in joining forces with Peru as regional partners. That being said, the current government of Peru, led by interim President Sagasti, said that it has submitted a “note of protest” to Argentina, seeing as the results have yet to be officially confirmed.
Also Read: Conservative Fujimori Holds Marginal Lead Over Leftist Castillo in Peru’s Run-off Election
Castillo’s victory was also welcomed by former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is expected to contest in Brazil’s 2022 election against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. Lula said, “The result of the Peruvian polls is symbolic and represents another advance in the popular struggle in our dear Latin America.”
Likewise, former leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales, who was ousted via a US-backed coup in November 2019 that then placed right-wing senator Jeanine Áñez in charge, described Castillo as a “brother of the soul and companion in struggle.”
Fujimori is also in the spotlight for an ongoing corruption investigation, as she has been accused of receiving over $17 million in illegal campaign funds for her presidential campaigns in 2011 and 2016, and of leading a criminal organisation. If convicted, she could be handed a 30-year jail term. In fact, prosecutor José Domingo Pérez asked a court on Thursday to place Fujimori under preventive custody for allegedly meeting with a witness in her corruption case.
The close nature of this election is not unprecedented. Back in 2016, Fujimori lost by a 0.24% margin to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.