Tension grows in Peru due to Fujimori’s attempt to annul Castillo’s votes

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – With 98.3% of the votes counted, the leftist Castillo currently has 50.2% of the preferences against 49.8% for the rightist Fujimori, separated by a narrow margin of about 70,000 votes that place the professor and Peruvian teachers’ union leader very close to the Presidency.

The counting is advancing very slowly with the review of the tally sheets that have some kind of technical observation (1,186) and waiting to receive votes from the most remote corners of the country and overseas. Mathematics gives Fujimori options, but they are increasingly remote.

The votes that have yet to arrive are from areas overwhelmingly favorable to Castillo, while the precincts that are being reviewed should have a very marked bias in his favor to allow him to overcome the difference.

In these tally sheets, there are 443 with votes challenged by both parties, 329 with error in the vote totals, 98 with incomplete data, and 107 without signatures.

Annulment

In view of this scenario, the pro-Fujimori party Fuerza Popular intends to request the annulment of thousands of votes already counted in favor of Castillo through some of the large law firms in Lima, which are reviewing the minutes of each vote in search of alleged irregularities.

To do so, they must clearly prove before the end of the day on Wednesday that there was some kind of fraud in each of the minutes that they believe to be suspicious since these are votes that were not challenged at the time they were computed.

“Our representatives and the lawyers who have been watching it are going to demonstrate that there are tables with falsified signatures and tables with statistically improbable results,” assured Fujimori’s vice-presidential candidate, Luis Galarreta, to radio station RPP.

Weak evidence

Fujimori’s denunciation of the alleged “systematic fraud” was made on Monday night, when the vote count was already advanced, leaving Castillo as the probable winner of the elections.

There he presented a series of “evidence”, mostly gathered from social networks and fake news without much support to refute the preliminary reports of the electoral missions of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations (Uniore), which highlighted the correctness of the elections.

Among the supposed evidences is the case of tables that cast all their votes in favor of Castillo, something probable in zones where the candidate won with 88% of the preferences and which coincides with the fact that there are also tables with all the votes in favor of Fujimori, as occurred in some of Miami (United States).

March to the barracks

As if that were not enough, thousands of Castillo’s supporters are expected to arrive in Lima in the next hours from several regions of the country to demonstrate in defense of the electoral results.

At the same time, some of Keiko Fujimori’s voters have already called via social networks for a mobilization to request the intervention of the Armed Forces and prevent Castillo from being officially proclaimed president.

In response to this movement, the Ministry of Defense reminded in a communiqué that “the Armed Forces are not deliberative and are subordinated to the constitutional power, so any call to disregard this mandate is improper in a democracy”.

The pro-Fujimori party Fuerza Popular intends to request the annulment of thousands of votes already counted in favor of the candidate of Peru Libre, through some of the large law firms in Lima, which are reviewing each ballot record in search of alleged irregularities.

Tension grew even more this Wednesday in Peru in view of the tight definition of the presidential elections, with Pedro Castillo, who according to his accounts is already the winner, and with Keiko Fujimori focused on trying to prove an alleged “systematic fraud” and thus annul thousands of votes of her rival.

Read also: Check out more of our coverage on Peru

With 98.3% of the votes counted, the leftist Castillo currently has 50.2% of the preferences against 49.8% for the rightist Fujimori, separated by a narrow margin of about 70,000 votes, which places the teacher and Peruvian teachers’ union leader very close to the Presidency.

The counting is advancing very slowly with the review of the tally sheets that have some kind of technical observation (1,186) and waiting to receive votes from the most remote corners of the country. Mathematics give Fujimori options, but they are increasingly remote.

The votes that have yet to arrive are from areas overwhelmingly favorable to Castillo, while the precincts that are being reviewed should have a very marked bias in his favor to allow him to overcome the difference.

In these tally sheets, there are 443 with votes challenged by both parties, 329 with error in the vote totals, 98 with incomplete data, and 107 without signatures.

Annulment

In view of this scenario, the pro-Fujimori party Fuerza Popular intends to request the annulment of thousands of votes already counted in favor of Castillo through some of the large law firms in Lima, which are reviewing the minutes of each vote in search of alleged irregularities.

To do so, they must clearly prove before the end of the day on Wednesday that there was some kind of fraud in each of the minutes that they believe to be suspicious since these are votes that were not challenged at the time they were computed.

“Our representatives and the lawyers who have been watching it are going to demonstrate that there are tables with falsified signatures and tables with statistically improbable results,” assured Fujimori’s vice-presidential candidate, Luis Galarreta, to radio station RPP.

Weak evidence

Fujimori’s denunciation of the alleged “systematic fraud” was made on Monday night, when the vote count was already advanced, leaving Castillo as the probable winner of the elections.

There he presented a series of “evidence”, mostly gathered from social networks and fake news without much support to refute the preliminary reports of the electoral missions of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations (Uniore), which highlighted the correctness of the elections.

Among the supposed pieces of evidence is the case of tables that cast all their votes in favor of Castillo, something probable in zones where the candidate won with 88% of the preferences and which coincides with the fact that there are also tables with all the votes in favor of Fujimori, as occurred in some of Miami (United States).

March to the barracks

As if that were not enough, thousands of Castillo’s supporters are expected to arrive in Lima in the next hours from several regions of the country to demonstrate in defense of the electoral results.

At the same time, some of Keiko Fujimori’s voters have already called via social networks for mobilization to request the intervention of the Armed Forces and prevent Castillo from being officially proclaimed president.

Faced with this movement, the Ministry of Defense reminded in a communiqué that “the Armed Forces are not deliberative and are subordinated to the constitutional power, so any call to disregard this commission is improper in a democracy.”

Castillo reduces his lead over Fujimori in the second round of Peru’s presidential elections with 99.7% of the votes counted. Thus, the military reiterated its commitment to the Constitution, democracy, the principle of neutrality, and respect for the popular will expressed in the elections held on Sunday.

The Armed Forces also urged the population to respect the results and to work together to strengthen democracy and promote the development of the country.

Evo Morales congratulates Pedro Castillo

Without waiting for the recount to be finished, on Tuesday Castillo made a balcony speech in which he implicitly proclaimed himself the winner of the elections, although without categorically affirming his triumph.

With a speech of victorious air, the still probable winner of the elections exhorted his rivals to respect the results and promised to form a government respectful of the Constitution and “with financial and economic stability”.

Castillo even received public congratulations from former Bolivian President Evo Morales (2006-2019), who accompanied his message with a photo of the two of them in a meeting years ago.

“Brother of the soul and companion of struggle, you are the pride of the social movements and patriotic professionals. Many congratulations on this victory, which is the victory of the Peruvian people, but also of the Latin American people who want to live with social justice,” Morales wrote.

The winner of the elections will assume his five-year mandate on July 28, the 200th anniversary of Peru’s Independence Day, a celebration overshadowed by the economic and health crisis of the covid-19, which has already caused more than 180,000 deaths, making it the country with the highest mortality rate in the world.