Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud.
Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote.
The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori.
Photo: AFP
“I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow, I will call for a nationwide protest.”
The election ran into Monday in parts of the capital, Lima, because of delays in the supply of ballots and other materials, which prevented tens of thousands of people from casting their vote the day before.
Elections observers said that they saw no evidence of fraud, despite the dysfunctional nature of the vote.
Lopez Aliaga saw his lead over Roberto Sanchez, a former minister, and social democratic candidate Jorge Nieto shrink as the vote count continued.
With just over 80 percent of ballots counted, Fujimori — the daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori — had about 17 percent.
Lopez Aliaga was on just over 13 percent, compared with more than 11 percent for Sanchez.
Projections from the Ipsos institute suggest that Sanchez was on course to reach the second round.
Addressing reporters, Lopez Aliaga repeated his fraud claims and called on the electoral commission to “act, declare this entire process null and void, or figure out how to resolve this.”
He said that was seeking the annulment of the vote and called on his supporters to take to the streets.
“Don’t let them steal our future,” he wrote on Facebook.
Hundreds of his supporters protested in Lima, carrying placards and chanting “fraud” and “we want new elections.”
In an interview, Sanchez called for “the popular vote to be respected.”
“One can win or be defeated, and that has to be accepted because those are the rules of the game,” he said.
A record 35 candidates ran for president of the Andean nation, where four presidents have been impeached in the past 10 years.
The campaign was dominated by promises to tackle a surge in extortion and contract killings, and disillusionment with the political class.
With no candidate winning the 50 percent of votes needed for outright victory, a second round of voting is planned in June.
Tens of thousands of people were unable to cast a ballot on Sunday because election materials arrived late or not at all.
Several polling stations reopened on Monday to allow them to have their say.
Political scientist Eduardo Dargent told reporters that the logistics mess had “given arguments ... to several people who will cry fraud or worse if they are not happy with the result.”
Lopez Aliaga in his campaign said that he would crack down on crime and migration.
He suggested building penal colonies in the Amazon rainforest, surrounded by a “natural fence” of vipers.
Some people told reporters that the voting chaos had undermined their faith in the democratic process.
“We don’t know if the results are true,” said Yeraldine Garrido, a 35-year-old receptionist in Lima.
“It’s been a major democratic failure,” said Luis Gomez, a self-employed man aged 60.
Police have detained one election official and raided a private contractor blamed for failing to deliver election materials on time.
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