Peru’s Electoral Fiasco

Peru’s presidential elections took place on Sunday, April 12, and every day that passes brings new evidence of gross irregularities that have destroyed the trust of millions of Peruvians in the entire process. The vote count has not finished (right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori is ahead with 17 percent of the vote and is sure to go on to the run-off, but it is unclear whether she will face Rafael López Aliaga, a strongly conservative candidate, or Roberto Sánchez, a Marxist candidate, who are running neck-and-neck with 93 percent of the ballots counted).

The drama began on the morning of April 12, when thousands of Peruvians stood in long lines waiting for polling stations to open across Lima. Many of them did not open for several hours because the material, including the ballots, was not distributed in time by the company hired by the electoral body, the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE), its Spanish acronym. This caused many voters, particularly elderly people, to return home and give up their right to cast a ballot. At one point, hours after polling stations were supposed to have opened, the chief of the electoral body announced that voters who were unable to vote would no longer have to pay a fine (in Peru, voting is obligatory), which encouraged even more people to go back home without casting a ballot. Then voting was extended for a day in some polling stations—but not nearly as many as have been the focus of complaints.

Several factors made things worse. The logistical issues affected polling stations in Lima, where López Aliaga is strong and Sánchez very weak. Also, about 5 percent of the ballots are being reviewed because of errors or missing information; by default, those ballots are not included in the global tally (i.e., in the 93 percent of the vote count that has been published). Many Peruvians think they could be tinkered with to favor Sánchez.

As if this were not enough, when López Aliaga was ahead of Sánchez in the total count, a sudden influx of tallies from polling stations where the Marxist candidate is strong in the Andes catapulted him ahead of his right-wing rival. In contrast, many votes had not yet been counted in Lima or overseas, Lopez Aliaga’s strongholds. There would be nothing suspicious about this were it not for the fact that Lima’s votes are usually processed faster than those in remote areas of the country.

Finally, and mysteriously, several boxes with voting material appeared on a public road in Lima a few days after the elections. ONPE said that those votes had already been counted and that a representative of the electoral court, the National Jury of Elections, known by its acronym JNE, had accompanied the material, including those lost ballots, when it was transported from the polling station to the processing facility. The JNE has denied this, which raises all sorts of questions. Have those votes really been counted? Are those fraudulent votes that will be added to the count surreptitiously at some point? How many more ballots are going to appear in the streets of Lima suddenly?

Prosecutors from the JNE have filed a complaint against the head of ONPE, Piero Corvetto, and several other prosecutorial investigations are underway following private complaints filed by parties, including López Aliaga. The body that appoints and removes prosecutors and judges has also opened an investigation. So far, Corvetto has resisted calls to resign. Whatever happens with him, the damage is done. If Sánchez ends up in second place and accompanies Keiko Fujimori to the second round, López Aliaga and his people will never accept the result. Likewise, for Sánchez, who is closely linked to groups that have exercised violence in the past and to a former president, Pedro Castillo, who is in jail in connection with a self-coup he tried to engineer when he was in power.

As I wrote last month, after a period in which the country seemed to put its house in order following partial reforms, so much so that its economy has weathered periods of great political instability, Peru’s institutions have gravely deteriorated and lost the people’s trust.

There was already little faith in the electoral authorities following the irregularities that raised some doubts about the results of the presidential elections five years ago. This time, it has been infinitely worse; by extension, the damage to trust in the country’s institutions is perhaps irreparable. One wonders how much longer the economy can maintain its relatively steady course in such an institutional climate.