MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Castillo to be Peru's next president after all

Castillo will be sworn in on July 28

Peru's National Electoral Jury (JNE) Monday declared leftist Pedro Castillo has won June 6's presidential runoff by 44,263 votes (50.12%) over the conservative Keiko Fujimori.

The JNE carefully reviewed Fujimori's fraud allegations at different polling stations and concluded that Castillo will become the country's new head of state as of July 28.

The legitimacy of the Peruvian presidential elections has been recognized by the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union (EU), as well as by the governments of the United States and Canada, among other countries and international organizations.

Fujimori announced that she would acknowledge the results, even though, in her opinion, it is “illegitimate” because they have ”discovered something that is already unobjectionable: Peru Libre (Castillo's party) has stolen thousands of votes from us on the day of the elections.”

In a virtual ceremony Monday evening, the JNE proclaimed the 51-year-old Pedro Castillo Terrones as the elected president of Peru and Dina Boluarte as the first elected vice president for the period 2021-2026, making the latter the first woman to reach such a high office. JNE Chief Justice Jorge Salas Arena said the credentials would be issued shortly.

Peru's interim President Francisco Sagasti has already congratulated Castillo on his win and so have many Latin American leaders.

Castillo obtained 8,835,579 (50.125%) votes against Fujimori's 8,791,521 votes (49.875%).

Fujimori insisted that she had been a victim of a “fraud” which Peru's electoral system has refused “to verify” and proposed a “to face the difficult times ahead.”

”I call on the entire country to enter a new phase (of protests), with all the rights that the law and the Constitution give us,“ Fujimori said as she underlined that it is not possible ”to fall into any type of violence, attend any call that raises actions to attack public officials or take over the institutions,“ because ”there are multiple ways to protest.“

”Just as I swore to accept the electoral results, today I swear to you that I am not going to give up. Peru needs all the social and political forces united in the task of stopping Communism and defending press freedom. Our defence has just begun”, Fujimori underscored.

“I am going to recognize the results because it is what the law and the Constitution that I have sworn to uphold. The truth is going to end up coming to light anyway,” she said at a press conference.