Peru will review the first round of elections after ballot boxes were found in a container and thousands of questionable minutes. The audit may affect progress to the July final.
Due to voting irregularities, Peru will conduct an audit of the first round of presidential elections held three weeks ago, AFP reported on Sunday. Thousands of voting records whose reliability has been questioned are being checked.
- In Peru, the presidential election will be audited for irregularities.
- Thousands of questionable voting records are being checked.
- Only the two most successful candidates will advance to the second round.
- Voting was accompanied by logistical problems and the finding of tickets in the trash.
With more than 97 percent of the ballots counted, radical left candidate Roberto Sánchez, who received 12 percent of the vote, and ultra-conservative Rafael López Aliaga, with 11.9 percent of the vote, are separated by about 27,500 votes.
Both of these candidates trail right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori, who was supported by 17.12 percent of voters in the first round. Only the two most successful candidates from the first round advance to the second round of elections, which will take place on June 7.
There were several problems
The day of the presidential elections was accompanied by logistical problems in the capital. A slow counting of votes followed. Doubts were also raised by the discovery of several ballot boxes in one of the garbage containers in Lima. Aliaga called for a repeat of the elections in Lima, where he was once the mayor, but the representatives of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) rejected his request.
The JNE will now carry out a “complete and thorough IT audit of the first round electoral process”, which will be provided by a committee of independent experts from Peru and foreign specialists. The aim of this step is to strengthen the “transparency, integrity and reliability of election results”, JNE said. Voting is compulsory in Peru; there are more than 27 million registered voters.
