Pedro Castillo declared himself the winner of the Peruvian presidential election last Tuesday (8). From the balcony of his party committee, Free Peru, in the center of Lima, the leftist candidate affirmed that the “people have spoken” and that, “according to the report of our inspectors, we already have the result”. “We have seen that the people imposed this victory at the ballot box. Therefore, I ask you not to fall into provocations.”
This Wednesday morning, with 99.79% of the ballots counted, Castillo’s victory seems irreversible, since he holds 50.2% of the vote, while Keiko Fujimori holds 49.7%. However, the jury for the national elections has made no official statement confirming the result and expects, in the early afternoon, the arrival of votes cast abroad, from countries like Chile. and Brazil. This segment is important because it totals nearly one million voters. Those who remain, however, do not reach 2% of that figure.
The prospect that the panorama is already set is so strong that one of Peru’s most respected political analysts, David Sulmont, a specialist in electoral statistics, posted on social media that he believes the electoral cycle is over and that “Castillo will be the new President”.
Keiko, who on Monday evening (7), after being overtaken by her opponent in the ballot, accused the existence of “systemic fraud” in the ballot and was contradicted by international observers, made no news statement since then. The candidate had shown videos and photos as alleged evidence that the election records had been tampered with. The records would also indicate the training given to Castillo officials and inspectors to commit illegal acts that would guarantee their victory.
The jury for the national elections, however, indicated that the observation mission of the Inter-American Union of Electoral Bodies presented a report in which it affirms that the election was conducted regularly and successfully.
The statement was corroborated by the 40-member OAS Election Observation Mission headed by former Paraguayan Chancellor Rubén Ramírez Lezcano. For the body, any non-compliance “did not compromise the election as a whole” and can be “resolved by legal means”.
Layoffs in the Peruvian press
Employees of America TV and Canal N submitted letters on Tuesday announcing a collective resignation over what they called editorial changes in favor of Keiko.
Before, there had already been layoffs of vehicles, which, according to the licensees, were due to differing opinions. In the newspapers El Comércio and Peru21, fired officials claim that the reason was the disagreement with the editorial line in favor of the candidate.
Journalist Pao Ugaz, correspondent for the Spanish newspaper ABC, shared several of the complaints on Twitter. “There is a media slaughter in Peru. The hostile environment of the last presidential campaign against the editors and journalists of America, Canal N and Cuarto Poder is forcing journalists to fire professionals.
Clara Elvira Ospina, one of America TV’s licensed journalists, said on social media that the decisions concerning professionals at Cuarto Poder, América Noticias and Canal N “only confirm that it is not journalism that makes the decisions “. “It’s not the urge to do journalism that drives them.”
In the American newspaper The Washington Post, the Peruvian Diego Salazar, author of the book “We do not understand anything”, published an article in which he claims that journalists from the main media in the country have been ordered to write pro articles. -fujimorism lately. years.