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The President of the National Elections Board made a call on Wednesday for calm and respect for the electoral process. His comments are in response to the perceived lack of trust in the electoral institutions of Peru.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pedro Cateriano announced on Wednesday morning that 100,000 armed officers will be deployed to guarantee a peaceful process for the elections.
The distrust stems from decisions made by the National Elections Board to remove two of the main candidates from the ballot: Julio Guzmán, who was second in the polls, and Cesar Acuña.
The Board is also currently processing complaints that the same law violated by Cesar Acuña, which led to his elimination, was also violated by frontrunner Keiko Fujimori of Fuerza Popular, and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of Peruanos Por el Kambio. Kuczynski is currently second in the polls.
Acuña was eliminated from the contest by the National Elections Board for offering close to US$3,000 to a disabled merchant in a poor area. The law prohibits any gifts to voters during the campaign. Similarly, Fujimori is being investigated for providing monetary gifts to contestants at a hip-hop event that aimed to mobilize youth to support her candidacy. Fujimori’s defense argues the event was organized by a third party called Factor K.
Even though the use of third parties to give money or gifts is also prohibited by the law, this defense raises questions as two videos have emerged in which Fujimori claims her party is responsible for the work of Factor K.
One of the videos shows her at an event at Harvard University last year, where she claimed “we have been able to achieve, through the youth national coordination and Factor K, the integration of youth in politics. This youth participation … will be the great engine for change in the country, in Fuerza Popular, and in my next political campaign.”
The case against Kuczynski is similar. Videos have emerged showing that beer was offered at a Kuczynski rally – and in his presence – in the province of Huancayo in southern Peru. One of his candidates to Congress states in the video “we call right now on the delegates because Dr. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has not come with empty hands … So my dear brothers here we have for each neighborhood 15 boxes of beer … that is what Kuczynski has brought.”
A preliminary decision in the case of Fujimori has to be made by the Special Elections Board by the end of Wednesday. After this time, the case will be passed to the National Elections Board, where it is possible that it will be appealed by both parties. The schedule for Kaczynski’s case has not yet been determined.
The other top candidates in the contest are Alfredo Barnechea with a centrist platform, and Veronika Mendoza with a clear leftists proposal. Both have risen in popularity since declaring their candidacy and are tied in third place with 14 percent of valid votes according to IPSOS, the most reputable poll in the country.
The Nationalist Party of the ruling President Ollanta Humala withdrew their candidate, Daniel Urresti, against his will. He had reached less than 2 percent of support in the polls. Had he continued until election day, such a low showing would have caused the Nationalist Party to lose its status as a legally recognized party. Urresti resigned from the party on Wednesday, citing the leadership acting without the input of the general membership.
Polls also show that although Keiko Fujimori is leading, she will not be able to obtain the necessary 50 plus 1 percent to avoid a runoff election. Whoever passes to the next round with her will likely receive a significant amount of votes that would have gone to the other candidates.
As a result, analysts are describing the election as a dispute between “Fujimorism” and “anti-Fujimorism”. They predict the candidate that passes to the second round will have a high chance of winning the final elections.
Already there have been three massive protests against the candidacy of Keiko Fujimori, with the largest demonstration yet expected for April 5. So far, every protest has stopped at the headquarters of the National Elections Board to highlight what protesters identify as its impartiality. According to protesters, the Board is not applying the same laws with the same force to Fujimori as it is to other candidates.
In light of these circumstances, the President of the National Elections Board, Francisco Tavara, responded by saying “we appeal to the democratic commitment of the citizenship and the participating political parties to let their sympathizers know the messages of peace and tolerance that should characterize democratic life.”
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