Minute by minute: Peru’s presidential elections

The National Office of Electoral Processes of Peru (ONPE), reported this Sunday in its first official balance of results that with 42.030% of the records scrutinized in the second presidential electoral round, the Popular Force candidate, Keiko Fujimori, obtained 52 , 90% of the votes, while the candidate of Peru Libre, Pedro Castillo, reached 47.09%.

The electoral passions of Peruvians go beyond the borders of the country. In New Jersey, at least 53,000 Peruvians were registered to vote from that US state. The tension over polarization between the runoff trends was also felt abroad.

The interim president, Francisco Sagasti, cast his vote and called on citizens to exercise suffrage and consolidate democracy. Jimena de la Quintana tells us how the Peruvian civic festival was lived and the statements of Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori. In addition, analyst Henry Rafael takes stock of the day.

Editor’s note: Roberto Izurieta is director of Latin American Projects at George Washington University. He has worked in political campaigns in several Latin American countries and Spain, and was an advisor to Presidents Alejandro Toledo, of Peru; Vicente Fox, from Mexico, and Álvaro Colom, from Guatemala. Izurieta is also a contributor to CNN en Español. The opinions here are yours.

I have spent many days in Lima analyzing the electoral political situation that will be essential for the future of the region. Furthermore, as a professor of electoral campaigns, this election, much more so than that of Ecuador, will be a case study.

In Peru I have had the opportunity to talk and discuss my ideas with businessmen and friends. I met Keiko Fujimori during the peace talks in Peru when he was communication advisor to the president of Ecuador in the late 1990s. From there, I am joined by a strong friendship, which for all analysis is an asset, but always making the best effort to be impartial. Without that, any analysis exercise is useless.

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Keiko Fujimori, who is located on the right in the political spectrum, reached 13.9% in the first round according to official data from the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE). The sum of the preferences for both does not exceed 33% of the validly cast votes. Jimena de la Quintana spoke with Keiko Fujimori and this is the profile she has drawn up of the Fuerza Popular candidate.

Pedro Castillo, who obtained 19% of the votes, will face Keiko Fujimori, who went to the second round with 13.3% of the electoral preferences. CNN tried, for several weeks, and through several people on his team, to interview Professor Castillo for this note and, although there was no refusal, it was not possible. This is the profile prepared by Jimena de la Quintana.

The vote of nearly a million Peruvians who, according to the country’s Foreign Ministry, are authorized to vote abroad, could be decisive in the contested second presidential round this Sunday. More than 300,000 Peruvians live in the United States, and most of them reside in a town in New Jersey known as Little Lima. As in Peru, there the electoral debate is also polarized.