Peruvian court rejects appeal to annul country’s general elections

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Lima’s 11th Constitutional Court dismissed the appeal of ex-legislator Yeni Vilcatoma in which she not only requested the annulment of the elections but also that the National Jury of Elections (JNE), Peru’s supreme electoral body, should refrain from proclaiming the results of the presidential run-off and that the new head of Congress should assume the post of President of the Republic.

In line with the alleged “fraud” denounced by the pro-Fujimori party Fuerza Popular, Vilcatoma urged in her appeal to the officials of the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status (RENIEC) to “adequately filter” the electoral roll in order to eliminate the votes of “minors and deceased” who, according to her, had participated in the elections.

After hearing the news, Vilcatoma announced that she will appeal the court’s decision and encouraged citizens to file more appeals in the hope of finding a “brave and fair” judge.

“Friends, this judge expeditiously paves the way to proclaim Pedro Castillo, with a preliminary injunction that has no apparent motivation,” she wrote on Twitter. “While we appeal, more citizens should appeal at a national level, sure that there will be a brave and fair judge,” the former legislator added.

NO EVIDENCE OF FRAUD

More than a month after the presidential runoff, Peru is now in the final stage of the polarized electoral process, waiting for the electoral court to review the latest objections filed by the pro-Fujimori party Fuerza Popular, and proclaim the winner of the runoff election, which according to the complete records was won by leftist Castillo, with 50.12% of the vote.

The delay in proclaiming who will lead the country as of July 28, when Francisco Sagasti’s transition regime will end, is the result of legal actions by the pro-Fujimori movement in its attempt to reverse the results and prevent the right-wing candidate’s third consecutive defeat in a presidential election.

The latest offensive was launched last Friday, when the Fuerza Popular legal team contested the proclamations of election results by the regional electoral juries of the cities of Huancavelica, Cajamarca, San Roman, Huamanga and Chota.

Since the day after the polarized ballot, Fujimori has alleged that she was the victim of “systematic fraud” and called for the annulment of some 200,000 votes in rural areas where Castillo obtained an overwhelming vote.

The candidate failed to provide any credible evidence of these accusations, except for alleged irregularities in voting tables with the signatures of those responsible for them, which she presented as “identity fraud” or alleged family ties among its members, something banned by law.

All these claims were rejected in the first instance by the local JEEs and then referred to the national JNE, which this week issued the rulings declaring the appeals inadmissible.

Furthermore, no electoral observation body, including the Organization of American States (OAS), has found evidence of “fraud”, while the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada have all expressed their confidence in the Peruvian electoral system and that the elections were free and clean.