Pedro Castillo greets his supporters from his campaign headquarters in Lima on Monday night.SEBASTIAN CASTANEDA / Reuters
Pedro Castillo announced on Tuesday that he has won the elections in Peru, according to the count of his auditors.
The rural professor addressed his followers, who have been stationed since the count began under the balcony of his party's headquarters, in Lima, to assure them that the victory was theirs: "The people have spoken."
The leftist candidate took off his hat and spread his arms in victory.
Castillo has anticipated the end of the count, which is 97.8%. Castillo currently leads Keiko Fujimori by 84,000 votes. The conservative hoped to shorten the distance in this last section of the recount with the votes of Peruvians abroad, but at the same time the minutes of the most remote areas of Peru, where Castillo has received massive support, reached the capital. “According to the report of our representatives (auditors), we already have the official count of the party, where the people have imposed themselves on this feat, to which we salute. That is why I also ask not to fall into provocation ”, he started his speech.
In the background you could hear the horns that his followers sound throughout the day. Castillo, 51, refers provocatively to the insinuations of his rival, who appeared at a press conference on Monday to denounce that the teacher's party was manipulating the minutes, which called into question the cleanliness of the elections. Fujimori did not present evidence of the alleged fraud. Five years ago, when he lost other elections to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, he made the same complaint. International observers have congratulated the electoral body for the organization.
The price of the dollar has risen these days due to the uncertainty of a country already moved. In the last five years it has had four different presidents. “There are certain tricks such as the rise in the dollar, which will rise a few more points tomorrow, the cost of bread, the cost of chicken, the cost of the family basket. Lie! What happens is that there is some uncertainty, but the people no longer believe them, ”Castillo said.
He added that he had chatted with businessmen, who during the campaign showed a direct rejection of his candidacy. The Peruvian elite turned to Fujimori. “I have just had conversations with the national business community that is showing support for the people. We will create a government that is respectful of democracy, of the current Constitution. We will create a government with financial and economic stability ”, he concluded. Castillo had announced in a campaign a referendum to reform the Constitution that had generated controversy.
The polls, at the close of the polls, gave a technical tie among the candidates. Each vote could be key. The count has all Peru in suspense since Sunday night. For the victory to be official, the electoral office, the ONPE, needs to count all the ballots. The National Elections Jury will later resolve the appeals of both parties. Once this process is finished, the electoral tribunal officially declares a winner. That could happen in several days. If Castillo's forecast is confirmed, Fujimori would have lost a general election in the second round for the third time in a row. The last, those of 2016, also by a very narrow margin.
Castillo's party does not end the matter. To defend himself against an alleged fraud to which they have alluded on several occasions, he has asked his followers to continue day and night in the vicinity of the electoral office, which is located about 300 meters from the headquarters of Peru Libre, the party to Castillo signed up to stand for election in January, when he was practically a stranger.