Eight days before the Peruvian elections, a plan to annul them is being denounced

Lima, April 20.- Far-right presidential candidate Rafael López Aliaga has launched a plan to annul the Peruvian elections held eight days ago, invoking an alleged fraud that lacks evidence, according to a journalistic report.

At the same time, the slow vote count continues, with the first consolidated results showing neoliberal Keiko Fujimori, of Fuerza Popular, in the lead, followed by leftist Roberto Sánchez, who narrowly surpasses López Aliaga and is facing a McCarthyist-style media campaign similar to those seen in elections in other countries.

The newspaper La República stated in its online version that the aforementioned candidate “is leading a disinformation campaign that seeks the annulment of the presidential elections,” alleging a supposed fraud plan against him similar to what was previously applied in Venezuela.

The newspaper points out that police intelligence sources have reported as much, and that the plan uses the delays and other serious failures of the April 12 electoral process—which forced the National Jury of Elections (JNE) to extend voting until the following day for those who were unable to vote at polling stations in Lima—as actual evidence of fraud.

In a rally before hundreds of supporters on April 14, he issued an ultimatum to the president of the JNE, Roberto Burneo, demanding that he suspend the scrutiny within 24 hours, under the threat of unleashing an insurgency and sodomizing the official, an action that drew harsh criticism.

In a new gathering last night, he demanded that the head of the JNE call for supplementary elections before May 3 for those who did not vote on April 12, including police and military personnel who, he claimed, were prevented from doing so.

López Aliaga, of the Renovación Popular party, repeatedly stated during the electoral campaign that his polls, which were not made public, guaranteed him a wide victory, and that he was on guard against fraud like the one that, according to him, occurred in 2021 when the rural teacher Pedro Castillo won the presidency.

At that time, he was joined by Castillo's rival, Keiko Fujimori, of Fuerza Popular, and they failed in their attempt to annul Castillo's victory due to a supposed fraud for which repeated investigations found no evidence.

But this time, Fujimori—holding first place with 17 percent of the votes, ahead of Sánchez and López Aliaga with just over 12 percent—has what is considered her greatest opportunity to govern after three failures, which is why she opposes López Aliaga's preaching.

Since she has no evidence of the alleged fraud, she has offered to pay 20,000 soles (5,882 dollars) to each official of the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) and to anyone who provides her with evidence of the supposed fraud, which she attributes to the head of that agency, Piero Corvetto, who is facing widespread calls for dismissal as the person responsible for the irregularities.

In this landscape, the candidate for Juntos por el Perú (JP), Roberto Sánchez—amidst the media onslaught against him—has initiated contacts with left-wing and centrist forces to face the presidential runoff, should he consolidate second place.

The virtually elected JP senator and former minister of Pedro Castillo's brief government, Anahí Durand, warned that the current crisis is not, this time, a confrontation between the right and the left, nor of communism against capitalism.

The problem, she indicated, “is a group of fascist fanatics whose leader threatens to kill and rape high-ranking State officials and corrupt officials, and who despises the people's vote.”

“The response cannot be individual or technical; it must be political and collective; we call for the formation of a large front among all those who defend democracy, peaceful coexistence among Peruvians, and respect for democracy,” she said.

She added that the proposal does not aim for a simple endorsement of votes for Roberto Sánchez, and posits that “all organizations on the democratic side must unite, beyond political differences, and provide a democratic way out of this crisis.”

The call is a tacit summons to the leaders of the organizations Partido del Buen Gobierno, Jorge Nieto; Ahora Nación, Alfonso López-Chau; and Primero la Gente, Marisol Pérez Tello—centrists with various nuances and opponents of Fujimori and López Aliaga—who, along with Sánchez, would have won the first round by a wide margin.