Peru: Fujimori fights for results as Pedro Castillo claims victory in presidential elections

Peruvian socialist candidate Pedro Castillo won the presidential election on Tuesday after sticking to a narrow lead when the long vote count ended, though his right-wing rival vowed to fight the result and has yet to budge.

Castillo finished counting 44,058 votes ahead of Keiko Fujimori, who has made allegations of fraud with little evidence and has tried to have some votes nullified. The result of the June 6 vote has not been formally announced by the electoral authorities, but Castillo praised the victory on Twitter.

"He has started a new time," Castillo wrote, along with a photo of himself with his arms raised, the word 'President' in large print and his campaigning days slogan: "No more poor in a rich country."

He also changed his Twitter profile and wrote "President-elect of the Republic of Peru (2021-2026)".

The 51-year-old former teacher's abrupt rise has shaken Peru's political and business elite and can have a significant influence on the active mining industry of the world's second-largest copper producer, with Castillo planning steep tax increases in the sector.

Fujimori, addressing supporters at a rally in central Lima on Tuesday, vowed to continue fighting and "defend Peru's democracy." She hoped the outcome would change her way once the ballots that her party seeks to void were verified.

"Today, the result is a yes, a result of the ONPE (electoral body) count, but the most crucial thing is the evaluation of the ballot boxes," she said. "We trust the authorisations, yes, but we trust more in the public preference."

Castillo's Peru Libre party has rejected accusations of fraud, and international observers in Lima have stated that the elections were transparent.

Castillo had promised earlier in the day that he would not allow his rivals to deny the will of the people and annul the elections, which have seen supporters from both sides take to the streets in recent days.

Son of peasants, Castillo obtained 50.125% of the votes while Fujimori, the eldest daughter of former prisoner Alberto Fujimori, obtained 49.875%.

Castillo told reporters at his party headquarters in Lima that he would respect the electoral officials and asked them to end the ambiguity by establishing the result immediately.

"We are not going to allow an oppressed people to continue being discriminated against for more years," Castillo said. "Things have been put on the table in a democratic way, and there needs to be a democratic solution."

Election observers stated it might take days or even weeks for authorities to deliberate on legal challenges and declare the winner.

The Peruvians who had voted for Castillo are getting impatient. Ricarte Vásquez, 32, a native of northern Cajamarca, called the stalemate "shameful" when he was contracting a breakfast snack of fried fresh potato and yucca at a busy Lima junction where minibuses pick up passengers.

"If Keiko had won, he would have already been decided," Vasquez said. "I voted not only for a change of government but also for a change in the nation."

Vasquez stated he believed the situation for ordinary workers like him, many of whom suffered a severe blow during a months-long shutdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, would change with Castillo as president.

Luz María Quispe, 37, originally from Cusco, said she had also voted for Castillo and did not believe the fraud allegations.

"We want this transformation for Peru," she replied, being in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary in a Lima park where she and the old person she cared for had stopped to pray.

"What I ask Mrs Keiko Fujimori is that she now accepts defeat: the people have decided it."

Quispe said that she had studied to become a nurse, but she was forced to quit because she could no longer pay the tuition.

The socialist Castillo has galvanised rural and poorer voters who feel lagging behind in the country's economic growth. His rise could herald a shift to the left in Brazil, Chile and Colombia, which will decide for new leaders this year and the years to come.