The National Office of Electoral Processes ended counting votes more than a month after the election
National Electoral Council (JNE, in its Spanish acronym) of Peru confirmed this Sunday (17) that Keiko Fujimori and Roberto Sánchez will compete for second round of the presidential election. The end result was announced more than a month after the election.
The daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori won the first round with 17.1% of the votesfollowed by Sánchez, with 12%. The National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE, in its Spanish acronym) concluded this Sunday the official count of the April 12 elections.
The ultraconservative Rafael López Aliaga, with 11.9%, came in third place. Sánchez surpassed him by just 21,209 votes.
The first round was marked by delays in the delivery of electoral material in Lima, which forced the authorities to extend voting in some centers the following day.
Despite pointing out “serious deficiencies”the European Union (EU) election observation mission gave the Peruvian election full approval.
“Today, economic stability, democracy, freedom to undertake and to work are at risk (…) I call on you to transform fear and disappointment into action and hope,” Keiko Fujimori told the press after the JNE announcement.
López Aliaga refused to recognize the results. “We will immediately challenge this serious crime of treason against the country. We will not accept results that are the product of fraud and corruption”, wrote the former mayor of Lima on his account on X (formerly Twitter).
The campaign for the second round must be polarizedwith a scenario very similar to that of the 2021 election, between Keiko Fujimori and former president Pedro Castillo, dismissed in December 2022.
This is the fourth time that Keiko Fujimori, 50 years old, is running for president.
Sánchez, 57 years old and former minister of Castillo, is in his first campaign by the presidency.
Keiko Fujimori and Roberto Sánchez will compete for the presidency amid a serious political instability: Peru has had eight presidents since 2016. majority were destitute or resigned before facing the same fate over allegations of corruption.
Sánchez begins the campaign for the second round with several problems in court. The Public Ministry asked five years and four months in prison to the candidate for allegedly presenting false statements to the electoral body about donations to other campaigns, from 2018 to 2020.
Peru also faces a serious security crisis with the advance of organized crime.
