The count of the presidential elections in Peru reached its final stretch between legal processes, minute reviews and street tensions, with Pedro Castillo Terrones as the most voted candidate and with Keiko Fujimori unwilling to assume, without fighting, his virtual defeat.
The victory of Pedro Castillo in the elections in Peru is already being recognized by several presidents and governments in Latin America.
Bolivia’s Senate President @ AndronicoRod recognizes the victory of Pedro Castillo in Peru, hailing it as a victory for Latin America. pic.twitter.com/DpVu19 dSLs
– Kawsachun News (@KawsachunNews) June 10, 2021
This Thursday, the Office National Electoral Processes (ONPE) entered on % of voting records in your system and only 0 remains to be counted. 629% of the total.
Although this percentage is still higher than the one that separates Castillo de Fujimori (0, 40% ), it is impossible in practice that the result can be reversed.
Until now, the leftist candidate Pedro Castillo has the 50. 195% of valid votes (8, 803, with a lead of 68, 473 votes against the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori , who received the 49. 805% of the vote.
# Bolivia joins the celebration of the Peruvian people and congratulates the brother @ PedroCastilloTe , President-elect of # Peru , a country with which we share history and culture. The # PatriaGrande joins forces to continue the fight for a tomorrow with justice and equality for the peoples. pic.twitter.com/vz7QPd2POg
– Luis Arce Catacora (Lucho Arce) (@LuchoXBolivia) June , 2021
Among the minutes that remain to be counted are 608 sent to the National Elections Jury (JNE) for presenting contested votes, illegibility errors and other incidents, which should be disproportionately favorable to Fujimori to change the result.
Faced with this scenario, the Popular Force candidate and political heir to former president Alberto Fujimori ( – 1990) has requested the nullity of 803 minutes, representing more than 200, 000 votes, by p Resume irregularities and an alleged attempt of ‘table fraud’ attributed to Castillo’s party, Peru Libre.
Fujimori lies
Castillo’s first vice-presidential candidate, Dina Boluarte , responded at a press conference that Fujimori “is trying to deceive the Peruvian people” by stating that “the representatives (of Peru Libre) have acted criminally”, while rejecting “such insinuation.”
Boluarte added that the vote, to 100% of the processed records, has given “as the winner the professor Pedro Castillo , some minutes have yet to be counted, but we will wait with the calm that characterizes us “.
” We already know that the Peruvian people through their vote have already decided who will be the next president of the Republic, “he said.
Fujimori made the request for annulment to the electoral bodies in a press conference in which he was accompanied ied by the former congressman and collaborator in her campaign Miguel Torres, who is also included like her in the accusation for money laundering and criminal organization presented by the Prosecutor’s Office against the candidate and the leadership of Fuerza Popular.
() That Fujimori return to prison
Torres’ presence at that press conference, held on Wednesday, gave rise to the prosecutor in the case, José Domingo Pérez, to again request the preventive detention of Fujimori for failing to comply with the conditions imposed by the courts when she was released last year, such as maintaining contact with a witness.
Fujimori described the prosecutor’s request as “absurd”, explaining that Torres has been participating with her in the campaign since June last year and is now advising the party in the request for annulment of 802 voting records.
The candidate argued that Pére z seeks to “continue to be the protagonist of this electoral campaign”, having made the request for a variation of his appearance in preventive detention, after presenting Torres as one of those in charge of the request to annul some 200, 000 votes considered to favor Castillo.
Money laundering
Fujimori faces a fiscal order of more than 30 years in prison for alleged money laundering in the financing of his previous electoral campaigns in 2011 Y 2016 by Odebrecht and Peruvian companies, a judgment that would avoid being elected.
Fujimori’s lawyer, Giuliana Loza, trusted that “after this request has been notified and we are summoned, the criminal judge will declare it inadmissible, not only because it is unnecessary, but because it lacks of all logic ”.
In the midst of this panorama, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry reported that it has been obliged to deliver a protest note to the ambassador of Argentina in Lima for the greeting extended by the president of that country, Alberto Fernández, to Castillo as “president-elect”, despite the fact that the results have not yet been announced by the electoral bodies.
In a message on Twitter, Fernández reported that he contacted Castillo to convey his congratulations and express his desire to unite “in favor of Latin America.”
Thank you for your words, dear Alberto. Together we will work for a more just, democratic and free Latin America. https://t.co/NmSRyYMcp5
– Pedro Castillo Terrones (@PedroCastilloTe) June 10, 2021
A group of 17 former presidents of America and Spain, all right-wing or center-right, today also signed a document requesting that none of the contenders is declared the winner until the Peruvian National Elections Jury confirms their triumph.
With information from EFE