Peru Election: Keiko Fujimori loses allies, slips away from reversing election result

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Peru’s right-wing presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, struggling to reverse the initial result of the June 6 election that showed her lagging behind socialist rival Pedro Castillo, may be running out of time and allies.

Castillo, who scares the Andean country’s political establishment, finished with a narrow 44,000-vote lead at the end of the ballot count, but the outcome is dragging on as Keiko alleges fraud and seeks to disqualify some votes.

But this bid seemed to lose steam after potential allies distanced themselves from Keiko, daughter of ex-president Alberto Fujimori, currently imprisoned for corruption and human rights abuses. “Enough is enough,” said a weekend editorial in conservative newspaper El Comercio, part of one of the country’s most powerful media conglomerates which typically supports Keiko.

“Today it’s clear that what began with the use of legitimate legal resources to challenge the adequacy of some ballots… is starting to become an attempt by different political sectors to delay the process as much as possible.”

Castillo’s Free Peru party and the electoral committee deny any allegations of fraud, and international election observers say the vote was clean. The U.S. Department of State went further, classifying it as a “model of democracy.”

On Monday, Keiko went to the government palace and delivered a letter to acting president Francisco Sagasti, calling for an international audit of the vote.