Peruvian candidate López Aliaga calls for protest march against electoral “destruction”

The ultraconservative Peruvian presidential candidate Rafael López Aliaga, who is expecting to advance to the second round on June 7, called this Tuesday for a protest march before the National Elections Jury (JNE) considering that there has been an “electoral breakdown” and “sabotage” due to the problems reported on election day.

In statements to the press, López Aliaga of the Renovación Popular party stated that “the electoral process, which had to be clean and pure, has been sabotaged in more than 20 ways.” He attributed the incidents to the head of the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE), Piero Corvetto, by stating that what he has done “is an electoral disaster”, referring to the problems of distribution of electoral material that caused delays and the extension of the voting day.

The Call of López Aliaga

“What Corvetto (head of ONPE) has done, plus a mafia that surrounds him, with the consent of the JNE, is very serious. The worst crime in a democracy is to attack the popular vote,” expressed the former mayor of Lima. Corvetto underlined the following: “although Renovación (Popular) were to win, not this way, I think things have to be clear, pristine, clean”. In that sense, he asked the JNE: “give us a solution”.

López Aliaga invoked the Attorney General, Tomás Gálvez, and the head of the National Police, General Oscar Arriola, who is in charge of the investigation of “this sabotage,” to take urgent measures to stop what he called an “organized mafia, national and international, of a corrupt mercantilist right, that wants to maintain the status quo.” The presidential candidate added that Corvetto “must end up in jail, handcuffed once and for all.”

“The Jury has to take action today”

He stated that he had invited other presidential candidates to participate in the march called for this Tuesday, such as the comedian Carlos Álvarez and the veteran former television host Ricardo Belmont, with whom he claimed to maintain an excellent relationship. “The Jury has to take action today, it has no more time,” remarked López Aliaga. According to the latest official count of the elections in Peru at 79% of the ballots, López Aliaga has 12.5% of valid votes, behind the right-wing candidate of Fuerza Popular, Keiko Fujimori, who leads with 16.8%, but closely followed by the centrist candidate Jorge Nieto with 11.6% and the leftist Roberto Sánchez with 10.6%.