With Castillo’s victory near, Peru is preparing for the upcoming election news

Lima, Peru – The official result has not yet been declared yet Pedro Castillo he probably seems to be the next president of Peru.

People outside the radical left will fight head to head to unite the sharply divided Andean nation, however, and the most urgent question will be whether to moderate its policy or insist on Marxist policies in its Free Peru party manifesto.

These proposals include leaving the vast mining sector in Peru 70% of its profits in the country, nationalizing the media and spending 20% ​​of its gross domestic product (GDP) on education and health, which the country has collected more than ever in tax revenues.

Counting all the 18.8 million votes cast in the second round of the presidency on June 6, Castillo has a support of 50.15 percent, giving beard-thin lead More than 50,000 votes against his right-wing opponent Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of a 90s president jailed Alberto Fujimori.

He has shouted fraud – despite international observers giving a clear health account to the election – and this week hired some of Lima’s top lawyers to try to invalidate 200,000 votes, mostly from the impoverished Andean and Amazon countryside, where Castillo won outright. in some cases with more than 80 percent support.

But Fujimori’s efforts, which are unprecedented in Peru’s electoral history and have delayed the official declaration of the winner, seem to have failed.

The Peruvian National Electoral Court (JNA) ruled on Friday that most of its challenges came after the legal deadline. There are still less than 40,000 votes still at stake, enough to not overturn the result.

Highly polarized

However, Fujimori, who has spent the last 46 years trying to launder the alleged money and imprisonment for allegedly laundering money, has become even more polarized after Peru’s divisive presidential campaign.

Many commentators have warned that his legal team, largely made up of white lawyers, was effectively trying to get indigenous and mixed-race voters to vote.

“It’s part of our political and legal culture, all this paperwork,” political scientist Arturo Maldonado of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru told Al Jazeera. “He’s a candidate who has everything to lose and uses these tricks to win on the court what he couldn’t do on the field.”

Not accepting Fujimo it is also likely that Castillo, a 51-year-old provincial teacher and union leader, will step up his challenges to establish his legitimacy in office.

The two unelected candidates received only 13 percent and 19 percent, respectively crowded first round, and was seen by most Peruvians as a vote in the elected elimination it is believed to be the two smallest diseases.

With no experience in public office, and often contradicting himself in the campaign, Castillo will face a small and direct incoming Congress, which is unlikely to sign his economic plan, especially nationalization.

He will also run the risk of challenge, for no or no reason. The outgoing Congress set that precedent last November remove Martín Vizcarra removed the then president from office based on allegations of corruption that had not been proven but were yet to be seriously investigated.

“It’s likely that Castillo will turn his back on Congress and try to govern through a plebiscite,” Maldonado said.

Effort against corruption

Another key question will be how Castillo copes with Peru’s fight against corruption.

There will be two cases for early turn tests. The first is that of Keiko Fujimori, and the prosecutor is seeking a 31-year sentence for money laundering that he denies, and the second is that of Vladimir Cerrón, a former regional governor who founded Free Peru and a Cuban surgeon.

Cerrón chose the unknown Castillo to replace him in the presidential card, when he was convicted of corruption and banned from running for president. On Thursday, the court controversially overturned his sentence and four-year sentence. The judge is now being investigated, and Cerrón, who many believe will be the back seat of the Castillo administration, has half a dozen more fraud investigations.

Cerrón often made controversial comments, suggesting that he was not the leader of the Castillo campaign. The presidential candidate wanted to reduce this, however, by stressing that in one case his tutor would not even be hired as a “goalkeeper” in his administration.

“Castillo needs to do a lot more to get away from Cerrón clearly,” said Samuel Roca, head of the Peruvian chapter of Transparency International. “His presidency could be dependent on that, but also his anti-corruption strategy.”

The hope of ‘enlightenment’

Meanwhile, the atmosphere in Peru has been tense as the country awaits the final result. The legal challenges are expected to be forthcoming next week, as the start of the transition will be delayed coronavirus pandemic continues to explore the country.

Fujimori supporters were picketing the offices of the ONPE election agency and the houses of the JNE and the head of the ONPE. Interim President Francisco Sagasti has called on both sides to avoid it proclaiming victory before announcing the official result, some lawmakers should also suggest censoring Fujimori for allegedly being sidelined.

Anna Luisa Burga, a 46-year-old Cajamarca historian from Castillo’s hometown who now lives in Lima, summed up the mood of many Peruvians who reluctantly voted for Castillo and now hope to raise a seemingly hopeless newly elected president. tremendous new responsibilities.

“I didn’t vote in the first round and I wouldn’t vote in the second round, but then came this wave of racism, classism and discrimination, and I decided it was important, as well as symbolism, to have a president like Castillo,” he told Al Jazeera.

“I still have doubts, and I think it will be very difficult. But I hope his clarity and that he will be surrounded by good people. “