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Peru: Fujimori requests international vote audit as new post-election maneuver

Tuesday, 29 June 2021 7:37 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 29 June 2021 9:20 AM ]

The Peruvian right-wing presidential candidate for the Fuerza Popular Party, Keiko Fujimori, arrives at the National Court in Lima, Peru, on June 28, 2021. ( Photo by AFP )

Peru’s right-wing presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, who alleges that there has been large-scale election fraud, has asked the country’s interim president to seek an international audit of the vote.

In a letter addressed to interim President Francisco Sagasti on Monday, Fujimori insisted on requesting an audit from the “international organizations” and the Organization of American States (OAS), despite the fact that the OAS, Transparency International, the European Union, the US State Department, and Canada have all already confirmed the results of the June 6 election.

Fujimori has accused the party of her rival, Pedro Castillo, of fraud, calling for 200,000 votes to be declared null and a further 300,000 to be scrutinized.

Peru’s electoral authorities have determined that left-wing Castillo secured 50.12 percent of the ballots in the run-off — about 44,000 more than Fujimori with all ballots counted. However, they have not yet declared him president-elect, pending the resolution of Fujimori’s challenges to the election results.

The political fate of the country hangs in the balance as hundreds of retired military officers have already called for a coup if Castillo is confirmed as president.

Castillo has firmly rejected the calls for the election to be annulled. Over the weekend, the supporters of both candidates took to the streets asking for an end to the uncertainty around the election.

The independent body in charge of declaring a winner in Peru, the National Elections Jury (JNE), has said that it will not declare a winner until it has reviewed the allegations of election fraud and vote-rigging filed by Fujimori’s camp.

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Castillo is a political newcomer, a left-wing primary school teacher from rural Peru who was little known before the first round of the election. He plans to redraft the constitution to give the state a more active role in the economy.

The ballot count will also change Fujimori’s immediate future. The eldest daughter of the imprisoned former president, Alberto Fujimori, she is currently facing charges of corruption, organized crime, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. If she is declared president, her trial will be delayed until after her term in office.

The new president is scheduled to be sworn in on July 28, which coincides with Peru’s Independence Day.

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