But the winner will be announced once the claims of irregularity have all been reviewed.
The second round of the Presidential elections of Peru was held on June 6 but it took 9 days to count all the votes.
The left-wing candidate Pedro Castillo received only 44,058 more votes than his opponent Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the controversial President Alberto Fujimori between 1990 and 2000 now imprisoned, and for the third time in the second round of the Presidential elections. The teacher and union leader has collected 50.125% of the votes cast, out of a total of 18,856,616 votes including nulls and blanks.
If the leader of Peru Libre declared his victory, the National Elections Jury needs to resolve the annulment requests. The Jury will only make the results official once done. It will take an undetermined amount of time.
Years of political instability in Peru
The right-wing party issued 800 appeals to nullify about 200,000 votes. A large number of them has already been cancelled for arriving after the deadline or not presenting enough evidence, according to the National Elections Jury. The appeals mostly occur in the poor and rural areas where Castillo, whose slogan was “no more poor in a rich country”, largely won.
Keiko Fujimori organized rallies “Respect my vote” but the election was monitored by 150 international observers, who considered the ballots passed off correctly.
As the tension is high in the country, Jorge Luis Salas Arenas, the President of the Jury declared “let’s not invoke more division, we have to rebuild ties of solidarity and seek consensus for the good of the country”.
The Presidential elections occur in the context of years of political instability in the country, corruption scandals and divide over the Fujimorismo, the movement supporting Alberto Fujimori.
Pablo Kuczynski, the President who defeated Keiko Fujimori in the 2016 elections, quit over corruption allegations in 2018. In November 2020, the Vice President Martín Vizcarra was removed from power for corruption charges. Then, the President of Congress resigned after 5 days as he was considered an illegitimate President. Francisco Sagasti was nominated President by Congressmen and formed a transition government until July 28, 2021.
Media sources and useful links:
- Oficina National de Procesos Electorales, Twitter, June 2021, Free access
- Misión de Observadores de la Unión Interamericana de Organismos Electorales, Twitter, June 2021, Free access
- Jurado Nacional de Elecciones, Twitter, June 2021, Free access
