The suspense continues in Peru in the home stretch of the presidential election.

While 99% of the ballots were counted, the candidate of the radical left, Pedro Castillo, considers himself the winner of the ballot.

At 8:18 p.m. local time on Wednesday, the latter was credited with 50.2% of the vote and his populist right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori with 49.7%, with a difference of 73,839 votes.

But Keiko Fujimori disputes this advance and demanded the invalidation of some 200,000 ballots before the electoral tribunal.

Estimados / as hermanos / as: agradezco a quiénes siguen resistiendo en las calles.

No caigamos en provocaciones de quienes quieren ver este país en el caos.

Por ello, hacemos un llamado de paz y tranquilidad.

Sigamos firms there are in esta lucha final que es de todos los peruanos.

- Pedro Castillo Terrones (@PedroCastilloTe) June 10, 2021

Election juries on Wednesday began the slow process of revising disputed ballots, the last hope for the heiress of Fujimorism to fill the lead that the count gives to her rival.

According to these television audiences, these were most often bulletins with boxes checked in the wrong place or the use of unauthorized ink.

03:18

Partisans vs. Partisans

To make sure all goes well for their candidate, hundreds of Pedro Castillo supporters gathered in front of the buildings of the National Election Jury, Peru's electoral control body, on Wednesday. "We are there in a preventive way so that the contested votes are correctly checked", explained one of them, Juan Gustavo Diaz. And in the center of the Peruvian capital, supporters of Keiko Fujimori also gathered to support their candidate, waving banners "Communism no, democracy yes" or "Until the last vote".

The careful study of disputed votes will further delay the final result, the wait having already been made long by the slow arrival at the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) of the attendance sheets from voting centers located in remote areas of the Amazon jungle, or those of the million voters who voted abroad.

No country has officially recognized Pedro Castillo's victory.

Only ex-Bolivian President Evo Morales sent him his "congratulations on this victory, which is that of the Peruvian people but also of the Latin American people who want to live with social justice!"  

Keiko Fujimori has not yet spoken.

On Monday, she denounced "irregularities", "signs of fraud" and "a clear intention to sabotage the will of the people".

The Peruvian armed forces on Wednesday urged "all Peruvians to respect the results of the electoral process" and pledged "to respect the will of the citizens expressed at the ballot box".

The two surprise winners of the first round on April 11, among 18 candidates, both assured that they would respect the verdict of the ballot box.

According to Peruvian political scientist Jessica Smith, of the Central University of Chile, "disputes over polling station results are going to be crucial" in deciding the ballot, although she felt that "desperation has already started to spread from the side. of Keiko ".

The Organization of American States (OAS) observation mission has so far acknowledged that "the counting of the ballots was conducted in accordance with official procedures."

The president of the NGO Transparencia, Adriana Urrutia, went further by telling the daily El Comercio that "there is no evidence that allows us to speak of electoral fraud".

Return to prison for Keiko Fujimori?

A loss so close to the goal would be another big disappointment for Keiko Fujimori. In 2016, she had already bowed to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski by a tiny margin of 42,597 votes out of more than 20 million voters (50.12% against 49.88%). She had strongly contested the result, crying fraud, before admitting much later "an error".

If it loses for the third time in the second round, after the clearer defeat of 2011 (51.4% against 48.4%), where it still took ten days for the result to be formalized, it could end up back to prison.

The prosecution has taken 30 years against her in a case of alleged bribes for which she has already spent 16 months in preventive detention.

His father, Alberto Fujimori, is serving a 25-year prison sentence for corruption and crimes against humanity.

With AFP

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR