Peru elections: Keiko Fujimori, behind in vote count, alleges “systematic fraud”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori denounced on Monday an alleged “systematic fraud” in the Peruvian presidential elections, pointing out a series of alleged irregularities that she attributes to the Peru Libre party of her rival Pedro Castillo.

In a press conference, Fujimori affirmed that they had detected a series of irregularities in the electoral process carried out on Sunday that “worries us,” and it is “important to make it evident”, besides asking citizens to denounce the cases they know about.

The far-right candidate has 49.7% in the vote, against 50.2% in favor of Castillo, when the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) has counted almost 97% of the votes. The votes cast abroad have not yet been counted.

Among the irregularities pointed out by the Fuerza Popular candidate are: the contestation of the protocol in which she has a greater number of votes than her opponent; Peru Libre training calls asking staff to come earlier to ensure the votes; or the complaint against an employee of this party who fraudulently marked 87 ballots.

“There is a clear intention to boycott the popular will,” said Fujimori and asked that denunciations of other similar cases be shared on the networks under the slogan #FraudeEnMesa.

Read also: Peru elections – Keiko Fujimori, in spite of everything, is the model for saving the “model”

“It is not that we are worried about our candidacy, it is about defending the future of our country,” she affirmed.

The candidate for the first vice presidency on Fujimori’s ticket, Luis Galarreta, mentioned in the press conference more than 1,200 contested ballots on which Fujimori allegedly received the vote.

Fujimori affirmed that, according to the vote count, currently, the 0.5% difference with respect to Castillo “keeps us optimistic”. “We know that we still have to count the tally sheets that come from the compatriots abroad, and we are confident that the vote will be evened out,” she said.

OBSERVERS SUPPORT ELECTORAL BODIES

Days before Sunday’s presidential elections, the electoral advisor of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Luis Martínez-Betanzos, said that “there is nothing and nobody that has damaged the credibility” of the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) nor of the National Jury of Elections (JNE), the highest electoral bodies in the country.

“I see attacks from one side and the other, but there is no fraud. Electoral fraud in any country can only be organized and instructed by the Executive, and here the Government is managing it impeccably and loyally with democracy”, the advisor specified.

Instead, Martinez Betanzos pointed out some information published “irresponsibly” by media or spread by social networks with attacks to both the JNE and the ONPE with the alleged intention of undermining their credibility.

The JNE shared this Monday on Twitter a document from the Mission of Observers of the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations (UNIORE) where it “recognizes that the electoral process carried out on June 6 was correctly and successfully organized following national and international standards.”