Peru Election: Castillo and Fujimori fuel division with claims of “fraud” and “coup”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Peru’s electoral division moved again this Saturday to the streets with demonstrations between those who support the right-wing Keiko Fujimori in denouncing a fraud at the polls and those who demand the official proclamation of the leftist Pedro Castillo as president-elect.

While some protested against the “fraud” they consider to have taken place in Castillo’s electoral victory, the supporters of the virtual winner of the elections protested against the “coup d’état” that, in their opinion, Fujimori is trying to carry out to avoid her third consecutive defeat in a presidential election.

Both Castillo and Fujimori took part in demonstrations in the historic center of Lima for the second week in a row and put even more pressure on the National Jury of Elections (JNE), which is still waiting to resolve Fujimori’s appeals to annul thousands of votes.

Although he has not yet been officially proclaimed, Castillo has already begun to act this week as president-elect and, in his rally this Saturday, he anticipated the main lines of his government under a message of unity launched to his followers in the Plaza San Martin, a traditional place of social protests in the Peruvian capital.

“The quarrels are over. I call for the broadest unity of the Peruvian people. From this moment on, there are no winners or losers. We are a great family called to lead a Peru of opportunities,” said Castillo in his brief speech.

“You have here an elected government,” added the schoolteacher and Peruvian teachers’ union leader, who promised a corruption-free mandate.

“NEITHER COMMUNISTS NOR CHAVISTAS”

Castillo denied that either he or his technical team accompanying him are Chavists or communists as they have been labeled by Fujimori’s camp, reiterating that they are not going to take property from anyone, and even announced his intention to ratify Julio Velarde – a reference of economic orthodoxy – as head of the Central Bank.

“We are democratic, we respect governability, institutionality and we will be respectful of this Constitution”, said the virtual president-elect, whose main promise is to promote a Constituent Assembly to enact a new Constitution that will allow the nationalization of natural resources.

Castillo also welcomed the pronouncements of international organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS) which have ruled out the existence of fraud in the elections held Sunday, June 6.

In the same line, the European Union, the US State Department and Canada, as well as other national organizations supervising the process such as the Civil Association Transparency, the Ombudsman’s Office and the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, expressed themselves this week.

With 100% of the votes counted, Castillo is the president-elect after receiving 50.12% of the valid votes, with a narrow margin of 44,000 votes over Fujimori.

However, the day after the vote, when she saw that her defeat was almost irreversible, the daughter and political heir of former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) denounced a suspected fraud and requested the annulment of some 200,000 votes from rural, Andean and poor areas where Castillo had overwhelming support.

OAS AUDIT

After the electoral juries rejected in the first instance all her appeals for lack of evidence or for not having been presented on time, Fujimori announced this Saturday in her rally that she will send a letter to the interim president, Francisco Sagasti, to ask the OAS for an international audit.

“Mr. Sagasti: look and listen to the voices of the more than 8 million Peruvians who want to know the truth,” said Fujimori.

“We are not asking that you favor us, but that all those irregularities and traps that have been made at the table be analyzed,” she added.

During the rally, Fujimori avoided coinciding on stage with Popular Force lawyer and spokesperson Miguel Angel Torres and Popular Christian Party (PPC) leader Lourdes Flores, two of her main advisors in her legal strategy.

This after a judge on Monday warned her that she could return to provisional prison in the event that she meets again with Torres, Flores or any other witness in the alleged money laundering case where she faces a 30-year and 10-month prison term if convicted of irregular financing of his electoral campaigns.

“I will never give up,” responded Fujimori, whose stance of not recognizing the election results keeps the country polarized, a situation that has provoked violence: this Saturday, the head of the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE), Piero Corvetto, was the victim of physical aggression in the Club Regatas Lima.

Attention will continue to be focused on the JNE, which has yet to resolve Fujimori’s appeals, although it has already confirmed the rejection of the first ten, which brings the official proclamation of Castillo as president-elect closer.