Castillo assumes 'victory' in Peru election, rival Fujimori wants votes anulled

LIMA: Leftist Pedro Castillo has cast himself as the winner of Peru's presidential vote, even though election authorities on Wednesday have yet to declare a winner in his race against right-wing populist rival Keiko Fujimori, who claims half a million votes are still in play.

With 99 percent of votes cast in Sunday's presidential poll counted, rural school teacher and union leader Castillo retained a tiny lead of 50.2 percent over Fujimori's 49.7 percent.

Late Wednesday Fujimori asked the National Electoral Tribunal (JNE) to annul the results of 802 polling stations, the equivalent of 200,000 votes.

She also asked for another 300,000 votes to be reviewed, so "half a million votes are in play," she said at a press conference.

Fujimori, the daughter of jailed former president Alberto Fujimori, led in early counting, but Castillo slowly gained ground.

As he overtook her, Fujimori alleged "irregularities" and "signs of fraud," telling reporters she had evidence of "a clear intention to boycott the popular will."

Both candidates had previously agreed to respect the outcome.

Peruvian authorities dismissed any possibility of counting fraud, as did the Organization of American States which said the count had "conformed to official procedures."

As Fujimori spoke, Castillo thanked backers rallying in his support. "Let's not be provoked by those who want to see this country in chaos. Therefore, we make a call for peace and tranquility," he tweeted.

Castillo earlier said party observers considered his triumph a done deal, even as authorities held back on announcing an outcome.

"In the name of the Peruvian people," Castillo thanked "embassies and governments from Latin America and other countries" for messages of congratulations on his "victory."

No government has officially recognized a Castillo victory, although Bolivia's former leftist president Evo Morales (2006-2019) sent a message of "congratulations for this victory."

The win is "also for the Latin American people who want to live with social justice!" tweeted Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president.

Castillo is currently ahead by some 79,000 votes, but with ballots still being tallied and votes being challenged by both sides, the process will likely take 10 to 12 days to be fully resolved, an official from the vote counting authority ONPE told AFP.

As in Peru's three previous presidential elections, also tightly-run, the tail-end of vote counting has been slow due to delays in the arrival of ballots in Lima from Peru's rural and jungle areas, and from abroad -- where one million of the country's 25 million eligible voters live.

Fujimori has taken most of the expat votes counted, but Castillo is widely popular among rural electors.

Overcoming that difference for Fujimori "will be very difficult, because there should be more votes that remain to be counted in Peru than abroad," analyst Hugo Otero told AFP.

Both Castillo and Fujimori have said after the election that they will respect democracy and form governments that will lead to economic stability.

Late Wednesday Castillo supporters rallied outside the vote counting ONPE office in downtown Lima, while a pro-Fujimori crowd gathered in a large Lima park to denounce the vote "fraud."