Leftist candidate challenges Fujimori’s win in Peru

Roberto Sanchez lost the presidential election by a slim margin after winning 49.86% of the vote. (EPA Images pic)

LIMA: The defeated leftist candidate in Peru’s presidential election, Roberto Sanchez, said Wednesday he will appeal the win of his right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Sanchez alleges fraud in votes cast by Peruvians living abroad and filed an appeal two days after the election, according to a statement from his party, Together for Peru.

Peru’s electoral authority said this week that Fujimori was elected with 50.13% of the vote in the June 7 runoff, compared to Sanchez’s 49.86%.

A previous request from Sanchez to annul the overseas votes was rejected by the National Jury of Elections, which deemed his claims unfounded.

The leftist candidate cast doubt on overseas votes because there was a “change of rules in the middle of the electoral process, preventing the digitalization in the runoff of the tally sheets for votes cast abroad” at Peru’s consulates, the statement said.

The National Jury of Elections is expected to officially proclaim 51-year-old Fujimori as president-elect this week, before she takes office July 28 to replace Jose Maria Balcazar.

Her victory marks the return of the Fujimori name to Peru’s presidency, more than two decades after her father, the late Alberto Fujimori, fled to Japan and resigned amid allegations of human rights violations and corruption.

Fujimori’s win is part of a wave of right-wing leaders who have recently won office in Latin America, some with the endorsement of US president Donald Trump.