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Lima.- Leftist candidate Roberto Sánchez, who is close to losing the second round of Peru’s presidential elections to right-winger Keiko Fujimori, confirmed this Monday that he has filed an appeal to annul the vote abroad, which would make him win the contest by counting only the votes within the national territory.
n” “nWith 99.71% of the vote counted, Fujimori has 50.11% of the valid votes compared to 49.88% for Sánchez, with a difference of 40,600 votes between them; however, the percentages are reversed if the votes from abroad are subtracted, so that Sánchez achieves 50.11% of the valid votes with 40,793 more votes than Fujimori, who records 49.88%.
n” “nThrough a message on the social network X, Sánchez explained that they have submitted this request to the National Jury of Elections (JNE) considering that the electoral process “has been seriously affected by the modifications introduced at the request of the Executive Branch (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) specifically in the presidential runoff.”
n” “nThe candidate who ran on behalf of the imprisoned former president Pedro Castillo (2021-2022) considers it “a serious irregularity” that for this runoff election, the digital transmission of results from 119 consular offices abroad was stopped, which forced a wait for the records to arrive in Lima to be counted.
n” “nAlso according to Sánchez, the transfer of the minutes was carried out without the proper chain of custody, something for which he blames the Foreign Minister, Carlos Pareja, whom his party Juntos por el Perú has denounced for the alleged crimes of electoral fraud, disruption or impediment of electoral acts, and omission of functional acts.
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n” “nSánchez’s group accuses Pareja of having “arbitrarily and unjustifiably dismantled” the logistics, IT, and diplomatic custody system for the votes of Peruvians abroad, by having sent the voting records to Peru in diplomatic pouches that allegedly failed to meet security standards.
n” “nFollowing this accusation before Congress, the Peruvian Foreign Minister rejected this Monday any imputation that seeks to attribute to him acts of interference, manipulation, political favoritism, or alteration of electoral material regarding the vote of Peruvians abroad in the second round on June 7.
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In a statement, Pareja said that the ministry fulfilled logistical and consular functions in coordination with the competent electoral bodies, and specified that the qualification of records, the counting of votes, the resolution of challenges, and the proclamation of results do not fall under his portfolio.
n” “nnn” “n“Neither international observers, nor the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic, nor the Ombudsman’s Office, nor the observers from the National Jury of Elections, nor the political parties’ own representatives have found any irregularity in the electoral process abroad that would support the alleged constitutional accusation,” he stated regarding the complaint filed by Sánchez’s party.
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Neither Sánchez nor his party opposed the changes in the processing of overseas records when these changes were announced, where so far election observation missions have not reported any incidents that point to the possibility of fraud.
n” “nIn turn, Keiko Fujimori commented to the local press this Monday that “every day of delay in not knowing the results is a day lost for a transition process,” not only in political matters but also in important announcements and measures, such as appointing the next government teams, while criticizing the slow final vote counting process of the elections.
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