2LT International News
Close election count in Peru, former president’s daughter lagging
Jun 12, 2021
LIMA, Peru: Peruvian socialist and school teacher Pedro Castillo was holding on to a slim lead over candidate Keiko Fujimori on Friday.
Fujimori is the eldest daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori.
With 99.998 percent of the votes counted, Castillo held 50.2 percent of the vote, maintaining a 71,441 vote lead over Keiko Fujimori.
Castillo is an elementary school teacher who is waging her first campaign and had widespread grassroots backing.
She has promised to rewrite the constitution and redistribute the nation’s wealth. Peru is the world’s second-largest copper producer.
Meanwhile, about 300,000 contested votes are being reviewed by an electoral jury and could delay by several days the announcement of who won the presidential election.
On Wednesday night, Fujimori charged that about 500,000 votes were suspicious, though she did not offer any evidence to back up her claim.
On Wednesday night, hundreds of voters on both sides took to the streets to protest for their candidate. Not only were most protests peaceful, but some included music and dancing.
Peru has struggled with the world’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreak by deaths per capita, and recorded its worst economic drop in three decades last year.
