Irregularities in Peru's elections: delays, lost votes, and system failures

Lima .- Peru's general elections were marred by a series of irregularities in their organization that led far-right candidate Rafael López Aliaga to denounce, without solid evidence, fraud against him and to ask for the immediate capture of the head of the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE), Piero Corvetto, who resigned from his position this Tuesday.

So far, the irregularities that have occurred have been apparently unintentional due to poor planning, without evidence of a clear intention to direct or influence the final outcome of the elections. With 94.95% of the votes counted, right-winger Keiko Fujimori has received the most votes, with 17% of the valid votes, while leftist Roberto Sánchez (12%) and López Aliaga (11.91%) are vying for the remaining spot in the second round.

1.- Chaos in the distribution of electoral material

On election day, numerous schools in the capital Lima opened several hours late due to a lack of electoral materials, due to logistical problems with the company hired for their distribution and delivery, which generated long lines and discomfort among voters who were waiting to vote from early in the morning. In the most serious cases, the affected centers opened five hours late, and thirteen locations in the south of Lima had to do so the next day, in an unprecedented decision by the National Jury of Elections (JNE) so that 52,000 voters who did not have the opportunity to do so on Sunday, April 12, could vote.

2.- Lost Votes

For the first time, due to allegations of fraud, also without evidence, made by Keiko Fujimori after losing in 2021 against the leftist Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), Peru changed the law to preserve all votes until the proclamation of results, so that they can be available for recounting if required.

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Error en el proceso de traducción

Error en el proceso de traducción For these elections, the ONPE was debuting the STAE (Technological Solution to Support the Scrutiny), a digital platform implemented so that the members of the electoral board could directly upload the results of the minutes to the database, without the need to prepare it by hand. However, the intermittent connection problems to the system led to the polling stations ending up doing the minutes by hand, and the technical failures caused polling station members, tired after almost 24 hours of work between the voting and the vote count, to give up, as happened in a polling station in Callao, where they broke the material as a result of frustration.

4.- Resignation of the Head of Elections

Pressured by the investigations opened against him and López Aliaga's request for his detention and immediate imprisonment, Corvetto presented his resignation on Tuesday to the head of ONPE, assuming responsibility for the logistical problems recorded in the elections.

The National Board of Justice (JNJ) accepted the resignation of the official, who apparently committed a violation of the regulations that indicate that his position is non-resignable in the middle of an electoral process.