LIMA – Thousands of Peruvians took to the streets on Tuesday to protest uncertainty over the outcome of a presidential election a month ago, while confirmation of leftist Pedro Castillo was delayed due to electoral protests by his conservative rival. Keiko Fujimori.
Carrying colorful Andean flags and pictures of the former socialist professor, Castillo’s supporters marched toward Congress demanding to keep its narrow 44,000-vote lead.
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Across town, Keiko Fujimori’s supporters rallied to support his allegations of voter fraud and his attempts to invalidate some ballot papers, pressure that his party continued, although election observers said voting was done in a clean manner.
“Peru wants a president and here Professor Pedro Castillo has been elected,” Santos Saavedra, head of the rural defense group known as Rondas Campesinas, said during one of the rally. – Let us defend this popular will.
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Castillo, 51, the son of peasants, took the lead in the June 6 run-off, rocking Peru’s political and commercial system with promises to change the constitution of the copper-rich Andean nation and raise taxes on mining.
Election officials check ballot papers after appeals from Fujimori who Alleged fraud without strong evidence. The process must be completed before the result can be confirmed, with the new president inaugurated on July 28.
– The game is not over and there is no winner yet. Fujimori said in another part of the capital Lima surrounded by his followers.
The interim government rejected Kiko’s request for an international review of the vote.
