LIMA:Peruvian presidential election candidate Pedro Castillo held on to his narrow lead over conservative rival Keiko Fujimori on Tuesday as ballot counting ended in the knife-edge June 6 run-off vote.
Socialist Castillo ended 44,058 votes ahead, but still faces potential legal challenges from Fujimori, who has made allegations of fraud with little proof and has tried to get some votes annulled.
The abrupt rise of the 51-year-old teacher has rattled Peru’s political and business elite and could have a major impact on the vital mining industry in the world’s No.2 copper producer, with Castillo planning sharp tax hikes on the sector.
“Ballots counted 100%. The win belongs to the professor,” his socialist Free Peru party said on Twitter.
Castillo had vowed earlier in the day he would not allow rivals to deny the will of the people and overturn the election, which has seen supporters on both sides take to the streets in recent days.
The son of peasant farmers, Castillo had 50.125% of the votes while Fujimori, the eldest daughter of imprisoned former president Alberto Fujimori, had 49.875%.
Castillo told reporters at the Lima headquarters of his party that he would respect electoral authorities and urged them to end the uncertainty by confirming the result quickly.
“We’re not going to allow an oppressed people to continue to be discriminated against for more years,” Castillo said. “Things have been put on the table democratically, and there needs to be a democratic way out.”
Fujimori said on Twitter on Monday that “we are only asking for a clean vote and for all the irregularities to be checked. We are not going to give up.”
Election observers said it could take days or even weeks for the authorities to deliberate the legal challenges and to declare a winner.
Castillo’s Free Peru party has rejected accusations of fraud and international observers in Lima have stated that the elections were transparent.
TIRED OF WAITING
Peruvians who had cast their votes for Castillo are growing impatient.
Ricarte Vasquez, 32, originally from northern Cajamarca, called the deadlock “shameful” as he was selling a breakfast snack of fried sweet potato and yuca on a busy Lima junction where mini buses pick up passengers.
“If Keiko had won, it’d already be decided,” Vasquez said. “I voted not only for a change in the government but also for a change in the country.”
Vasquez said he hoped the situation for informal workers like himself, many of whom were hit hard during a months-long lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, would change with Castillo as president.
Luz Maria Quispe, 37, originally from Cusco, said she had also voted for Castillo and did not believe fraud claims.
“We want this change for Peru,” she said, standing in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary in a Lima park where she and the elderly person she was caring for had stopped to pray.
“What I’m asking Senora Keiko Fujimori is that she now accepts defeat: the people have decided.”
Quispe said she had studied to become a nurse but was forced to quit because she could no longer afford tuition.
Socialist Castillo has galvanized rural and poorer voters who feel left behind in the country’s economic growth. His rise could portend a swing to the left in Brazil, Chile and Colombia, who will vote for new leaders this year and next.
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