Conservative former Mayor of Lima Rafael López Aliaga demanded on Tuesday the annulment of Peru’s recent — and yet-to-be concluded — presidential elections as the country reaches its third day without any definitive results that could clearly determine who will head to an upcoming runoff.
Peru marked a new chapter of its already complex political situation on Sunday, when the nation held its first presidential and legislative elections since 2021. The elections were celebrated after a period of political instability that left the South American country with nine different presidents over the past ten years — three of whom were impeached and removed from office between December 2022 and February 2026.
Sunday’s presidential election saw 35 different candidates appear on the ballot, a situation that all polling firms projected would result with no candidate obtaining the more than 50-percent of votes required to become elected in the first round — prompting a runoff election in early June between the two candidates with the most votes.
At press time Wednesday morning, the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) has not finished counting all the votes; as such, it remains unclear which two candidates will ultimately head to the scheduled runoff. While the Organization of American States (OAS) said the election took place in a “peacefully and in an orderly manner,” it was marred with logistical issues in the distribution of ballots to voting stations, which caused delays in the process.
Furthermore, the delays and untimely arrival of ballots left 15 voting stations in Lima’s metropolitan area unable to operate on election day — an unusual situation that Peru’s top electoral authority, the National Elections Board (JNE) resolved by authorizing the affected centers to operate on Monday, allowing affected voters to exercise their right.
Rafael López Aliaga is one of the 35 candidates running for president in the yet-to-be defined election, representing the conservative Popular Renewal (RP) party, which he leads. Initial preliminary results published by ONPE throughout Monday and Tuesday indicated that López Aliaga was in second place in the race, with conservative former first lady and former Senator Keiko Fujimori of the Popular Force party in a comfortable first position, but still one in which it is mathematically impossible to reach the more than 50 percent required to win in the first round.
Over the past two days, López Aliaga’s second place position was whittled down as more votes were counted by ONPE, and he now stands in third place at press time. According to the Peruvian electoral institution’s most recent available update, published on Wednesday at 10:13 a.m. (EST) with 90.76 percent of votes counted, lawmaker Roberto Sánchez Palomino of the center-left Together for Peru party is in second place with 12.04 percent of the votes, holding a razor-thing lead over López Aliaga, who dropped to third place with 11.89 percent.
On Tuesday night, López Aliaga and a group of his followers staged a peaceful protest outside the JNE building in Lima denouncing Sunday’s election and calling for its annulment over the irregularities presented in the election — giving the nation’s electoral authorities a 24-hour deadline to “declare this rubbish null and void. ”
The candidate, speaking to his followers, reportedly justified his calls to annul the election over the delays presented by ONPE in the delivery of ballots and opening of the voting stations on Sunday, which, he argued, left over a million voters unable to vote. He further claimed, “That comes to 1.6 million votes. We’re talking about 500,000 stolen votes.”
At press time, López Aliaga has not presented any evidence that can substantiate his accusations.
Peru’s Attorney General Tomás Gálvez spoke with RPP on Wednesday morning and stated that he sees no evidence of fraud in the elections, noting that the Peruvian Public Ministry has not detected any irregularities that could compromise the legitimacy of Sunday’s election.
“I haven’t seen any evidence of fraud or grounds for invalidating the election, and I think people are jumping to conclusions. I would urge the candidates or anyone who thinks that way to act with greater responsibility,” Gálvez said.
He also said ONPE’s chief Piero Corvetto will be investigated due to the “deficient” performance ONPE exhibited during the election and that, depending on the outcome, Corvetto could be suspended from his position. Corvetto appeared before the Peruvian Congress’s Oversight Committee, and, after reiterating his apologies to the public for the delay experienced in the election, denied there were any “serious irregularities” during the electoral event, deeming the delays “a one-time mistake.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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