Virtual Tie in Castillo-Fujimori Election Results Leads to Call of Fraud

The run-off in Peru’s presidential elections has led to a virtual tie between the socialist candidate Pedro Castillo of Peru Libre and Keiko Fujimori of the conservative party Fuerza Popular.

Castillo is in the lead with 50.22% of the votes, while Fujimori comes in a very close second with 49.77% — a difference of some 77,000 votes.

The electoral process office, ONPE, is tallying the approximately final 4% of the votes— which continue to arrive from abroad, rural Andean areas and the jungle— with results expected by the end of the week.

Fujimori’s stronghold is Lima and the coastal cities in nine regions, while Castillo has swept up 16 regions, the entire Andean highlands.

In a field of 18 candidates in the first election round in April —when members of Congress were also elected— Castillo garnered 18% of the vote and Fujimori only 13%. But they fared better than any of their contenders, several of whom lost their party’s registration with less than 5% of the vote.

Castillo, 51, is a school teacher in his home town of Tacabamba who became a public figure in 2017 when he led a national teachers’ strike that lasted four months. Although he was a member for several years of Peru Posible, ex-President Alejandro Toledo’s party, he has no government or political experience and much of his political platform has been improvised, and recently adjusted to appeal to a wider audience.

On the other hand, Fujimori, 46, has been in politics for almost three decades, serving as first lady between 1994 and 2000 for her father, ex-President Alberto Fujimori, and as a member of Congress 2006-2011. This is her third presidential campaign, in which her advisors include many from her father’s administrations.

Challenging the Votes

The very close vote count was bound to raise doubts. Castillo voiced the possibility on Sunday of a fraud but quickly backed down and has since called for calm and said he will respect the results.

Keiko Fujimori, however, called a press conference on Monday to express her concern about a “series of irregularities” and a “clear intention to boycott the popular vote.”

“There are signs of fraud at the polling tables, which we consider unacceptable. It is something planned, systematic..,” Fujimori said, citing thousands of irregularities.

Ivan Lanegra, secretary general of the Peru chapter of Transparency International, denied there have been “thousands and thousands” of challenges.

“To talk of fraud is very irresponsible,” LaNegra said on Radio Exitosa.

Lanegra said there have been some voting minutes challenged for illegibility and 461 minutes with one or a few votes challenged by party observers.  These with any other challengers are reviewd by a special elections board, which will resolve the complaints within a week to 10 days.

Peru has more than 86,000 voting booths, Lanegra said – a few challenges, which are usual in every election, in no case represent a fraud.

Jorge Salas, president of the National Elections Board, JNE, said the observers from the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations, UNIORE, commended ONPE for the “correctly organized and successful” elections.

UNIORE issued a statement on Monday calling for “calm and common sense” to prevail in the wait for the official results.