Keiko Fujimori Claims Fraud as Castillo Widens Lead

Peru’s Keiko Fujimori is making claims of “systematic” fraud as her opponent, Pedro Castillo, has widened his lead in the official vote count for Sunday’s Presidential election.

Fujimori opened an evening press conference, alleging “A series of irregularities have been occurring which concern us that we believe is important to show it” and adding that there exist “indications of fraud at the polling stations”. 

The race remains tight, with Castillo having taken the lead by morning. As of 8:30pm Peru local time, Castillo was leading by 93,000 votes with 94.679% of actas (tally sheets) counted.

Castillo took to his official social media pages in the afternoon, calling for observers to remain vigilant.

“Dear observers, for me, heroes and heroines of democracy, there are still votes (to be counted) from some corners of our beloved Peru and from abroad. Therefore, we must be very attentive to defend the will of the people until the last vote is counted. We move forward.”

Votes which remain to be counted include some from Peru’s rural area, votes from abroad and some actas that were marked as having ‘irregularities’ will be revisited.

Castillo supporters have maintained a celebratory atmosphere outside of the candidate’s headquarters in Lima while at the Keiko camp, things have quieted down.