As expected as the electoral count progressed in Peru, the leftist candidate Pedro Castillo has taken the lead near the completion of the count (we are going for 94.3%), already surpassing the barrier of half the votes, 50.1% compared to 49.8% of the candidate on the right, Keiko Fujimori. The predictions are fulfilled, since the last votes to be counted are those of the rural areas where Castillo has great favoritism. With every tenth of a percentage that is counted, the advantage for the leftist increases.
The lead of right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori dwindled as the tally of polling station records in rural and jungle areas were being counted. Voting abroad, with a million voters, and which can take up to 15 days to process, can also be key.
Fernando Tuesta, former head of the ONPE explained that “the act kills the vote. Each electoral act is on average between 200 or 300 votes “therefore, he indicated,” there is no option of fraud because at each stage of the counting process there are party officials. According to Tuesta, there are possibilities that Castillo “could win because part of the rural and foreign vote is missing.” It will be “difficult to reach 100% today, Monday because there will come a time when the count goes slow because the records (rural / foreign) take time to be processed,” he said.
“Only the people will save the people,” Castillo said, asking his followers for restraint in his stronghold of Tacabamba, in the department of Cajamarca, more than 900 km north of Lima, where he traveled to await the final result.
Fujimori, 46, who was silent on Monday, had commented that the exit results should be taken with “prudence” because the margin of difference was “small.”
Lima’s stock market collapses
The Lima stock market opened with a sharp drop of -7.22%, while the dollar rose to a record price of 3.94 soles due to the uncertainty and the slight advantage of Castillo. The nerves in the market contrasted with the expressions of joy in the Castillo bastion, the town of Tacabamba, where some 400 people paraded through the streets with giant pencils – the teacher’s campaign symbol – and flags, confident that their countryman will be president. .
“This is like a soccer match where Castillo is going to be the winner,” said a protester celebrating these results. In the town’s Plaza de Arma, Nestor Estela, 55, celebrated Castillo as “our candidate” and was confident that “he will be the next president who will get him (Peru) out of so many problems.”