Peru’s electoral court denies complementary elections

The request had been made by conservative candidate Rafael López Aliaga and corroborated by right-wing Keiko Fujimori.

In a statement released this Friday (24), the JNE said that the complementary vote would be “unfeasible” and that it unanimously rejected the requests, after “a technical-legal analysis” and “considering the reports issued by the competent bodies”.

“The JNE has been continuously carrying out the work of reviewing the minutes observed, resolving requests for annulment and other actions provided for in the current constitutional, legal and regulatory framework”, he added.

Due to the lack of ballot boxes and polling stations in some polling places, which left more than 63 thousand voters without voting on the 12th (date of the first round of the general elections), voting was extended until the 13th in these points.

However, according to the newspaper El Comércio, López Aliaga claimed that the lack of electoral material on Sunday caused several Peruvians to give up voting on Monday, which would have caused him to lose around 1 million votes, as logistical problems would have occurred in areas of the capital, Lima, where he would have been ahead in the polls.

“We demand complementary elections for everyone who did not vote, including police and military personnel,” said the conservative on Sunday (19).

Keiko Fujimori, who is leading the counting of the first round, expressed support for the idea. “I heard the request and it seems reasonable to me, as he (López Aliaga) is no longer talking about insurgency or total annulment (of the election),” said the right-wing candidate on Monday (20), referring to her opponent’s allegations that fraud occurred in the election.

The Peruvian Electoral Court is analyzing more than 4 thousand contested minutes for presenting inconsistencies or irregularities, which will define who will be Fujimori’s opponent in the second round, scheduled for June 7th.

Due to problems in last week’s election, the director of Peru’s National Office of Electoral Processes (Onpe, for its Spanish acronym), Piero Corvetto, resigned from his position and José Samamé Blas, Onpe’s electoral management manager, was arrested.

With 95.1% of the votes counted, Fujimori has 17.1% of the votes and the leftist Roberto Sánchez has 12%, against 11.9% for López Aliaga – the difference between second and third place is just 20 thousand votes at the moment.

Last Saturday (18), Yessica Clavijo, general secretary of the JNE, estimated in an interview with broadcaster RPP that the definitive result of the first round of the presidential election in Peru should be known in the first half of May, that is, one month after the vote.