David Lovatón Palacios*

The fox from above and the fox from below– José María Arguedas

Country of Jauja a possible utopia, which is that of respectful and enriching coexistence between cultures– Edgardo Rivera Martínez

Last Sunday, June 6, the second round of elections took place in Peru between two presidential candidates who obtained the largest number of votes in the general elections on April 11: the leftist, Pedro Castillo of the Free Perú (Perú Libre) party and the right-wing, Keiko Fujimori of the Popular Force (Fuerza Popular) party. At the time of writing this article, the Peruvian National Office of Electoral Processes (Oficina Nacional de Procesos Electorales, ONPE) had already processed 99.82% of the electoral records; the result, although very close, is clear: Castillo obtained 50.204% and Fujimori 49.796% of the votes. By a difference of only 71,441 votes, in an electoral universe of almost 25 million voters, it is most likely that Pedro Castillo will be the next president of the Republic for the 2021-2026 five-year term.

However, Fujimori and her party have still yet to recognize this result, and have announced that they will fight for each and every vote. Fujimori’s team has already officially filed appeals before the electoral justice challenging around 800 voting tables, which would imply the revision of around 500,000 votes, arguing that serious irregularities could have been committed in those voting tables to favor Pedro Castillo.