Peru elections: Castillo wins in vote count that Fujimori calls fraudulent

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The recount of the Peruvian presidential elections reached its final stretch amid lawsuits, revision of voting records, and street tensions, with leftist Pedro Castillo as the most voted candidate and rightwing Keiko Fujimori unwilling to assume, without a fight, her defeat.

The National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) entered on Thursday 100% of the voting records in its system and only 0.705% of the total remains to be counted. So far, Castillo has 50.195% of the valid votes (8,803,629 votes), with a 68,473 vote advantage over Fujimori, who received 49.805%

Although this percentage is still higher than the percentage that separates Castillo from Fujimori (0.40%), it is very difficult in practice to reverse the result.

Among the tally sheets that remain to be counted are 608 that have been sent to the National Jury of Elections (JNE) for having contested votes, illegibility errors, and other incidents, which would have to be disproportionately favorable to Fujimori to change the result.

In view of this scenario, the Popular Force candidate and political heir of former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) has requested the nullification of 802 tally sheets, representing more than 200,000 votes, for alleged irregularities and an alleged attempt of “table fraud” attributed to Castillo’s party, Peru Libre.