Who is the “Trump of Peru”, who tries to annul the presidential election

“The coup d’état and electoral fraud in Peru have just been consummated. The Onpe (National Office of Electoral Processes), the JNE (National Elections Jury) and their accomplices choose and impose their candidates against the will of the people. We will immediately challenge this serious crime of betrayal of the country! We will not accept results produced by fraud and corruption”, wrote López Aliaga.

According to data released by Onpe, Fujimori and Sánchez were the most voted in the first round, held on April 12 and 13, but the official results were only announced now, due to problems that resulted in the resignation and arrest of Onpe members, the recounting of electoral records and an order from the JNE to audit the digital systems used in the election.

Businessman Rafael López Aliaga, 65, has a degree in engineering and business administration and is the owner of companies in the hotel and railway sectors, including the one that operates the concession for the line that takes tourists to Machu Picchu, the main tourist attraction in Peru.

He was a councilor in Lima between 2007 and 2010 and was elected mayor of the capital in 2022, but left the position in 2025 to run again for president – ​​in the previous attempt, in 2021, he had also come in third place in the first round, with 11.75% of the votes. This year, it totaled 11.9%.

A critic of the “caviar left”, López Aliaga was compared by the EFE agency to the American president, Donald Trump, for his confrontational style and his hard-line proposals, which include Peru’s withdrawal from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; death penalty and life imprisonment for crimes such as extortion, contract murder and rape of minors; construction of prisons in isolated jungle areas for highly dangerous prisoners; and electronic ankle monitors for illegal immigrants, among other measures to combat the lack of security.

Another similarity between López Aliaga and the American president is the allegation of fraud in elections: during the investigation, he asked the Peruvian attorney general’s office and the police to “immediately” arrest the director of the Peruvian electoral body and for the elections to be annulled, due to errors that caused the vote, scheduled to take place only on April 12, to be extended until the following day. It also offered a reward for anyone who presented evidence of fraud in the process.

“Not even in Venezuela, under the dictatorship of (Nicolás) Maduro, have we seen such filth,” he said, at a protest in Lima in the first week of the investigation.

Subsequently, López Aliaga presented a request to hold complementary elections so that people who would have stopped voting due to problems in the election could go to the polls, but the request was denied by the JNE.

The right-winger had claimed that the lack of electoral material on April 12 caused several Peruvians to give up voting the following day, which would have caused him to lose around 1 million votes, as logistical problems occurred in areas of Lima where, according to the candidate, he was ahead in the polls.

Last week, shortly before the official result was announced, López Aliaga asked for an international expert examination of electoral processes in Peru to be carried out, as the audit announced by the JNE would not be sufficient.

“It’s not a matter of chance; there is intent, there is crime. It gives all these people more than 20 years in prison”, he accused, in an interview with CNN en Español.

López Aliaga specifically expressed questions about the polling stations identified as series 900,000. “Statistically, it is impossible that on one night in a series, 900,000, you have 250,000 votes and that they are all counted between the night and dawn (after the election). This does not withstand the slightest scrutiny”, he accused.