Who is Pedro Castillo, the supposed president-elect of Peru? | Election news

Lima, Peru – More than a majority of the elected president, Pedro Castillo, the apparent new leader of Peru, will have to put his transition team to work as soon as possible.

On the one hand, a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic is increasingly likely in the Andean nation, which has already suffered the worst death of COVID-19 in the world’s population. They have just found a highly contagious Delta variant in Arequipa, with authorities trying to cut Peru’s second city from the rest of the country.

On the other hand, Castillo, 51, a radical left-wing outside who hoped no one would win, apparently including the candidate himself, campaigned chaotically, often contradicting himself and delaying a few weeks to see if he even had a political group. he did not want his expert advisers to be “stigmatized” by the media.

Many of those who voted for a public school teacher and union leader in the Cajamarca region of the northern Andes also question whether Peru is ready for historic challenges to get out of public health and twin economic crises after being sworn in. on July 28, the 200th anniversary of Peruvian independence.

However, no transition can begin until Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the 1990 despot who is imprisoned by Alberto Fujimori, resolves several unprecedented legal challenges to his opponent. He is making unreasonable claims election “fraud”.

Despite being observers of international elections, including those of the Organization of American States, they have praised the Peruvian electoral authorities for conducting transparent, clean and fair elections without major irregularities.

Fujimori, 46, wants to cast nearly 200,000 votes, mostly from indigenous and mixed-race voters in the impoverished Andean regions who voted for Castillo. According to the official vote count, Castillo has it beard-thin lead out of 40,000 votes cast out of the 18.8 million, but cannot be officially declared until the president-elect solves Fujimori’s challenges – a process that could take weeks.

The bet could not have been greater for Fujimori, whose father used army tanks to close Congress before his regime eventually fell into allegations of electoral fraud and kleptocracy. He is serving a 25-year sentence for ordering extrajudicial killings. Now, her daughter is facing a lawsuit of her own, allegedly for $ 17 million in money laundering and extended her prison sentence, unless she gains immunity from the presidency.

His criticism is equating the tactic of refusing to accept his loss in the November 2020 election of former U.S. President Donald Trump, with a detrimental effect similar to Peru’s fragile democracy.

Fujimori’s supporters have picketed the homes of the head of the Andean national election agency and members of the JNE, the electoral tribunal responsible for resolving his appeals.

Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori has filed unproven fraud allegations in an attempt to cast 200,000 votes [Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters]

They have also often launched a tsunami of attacks on racially colored social networks against Castillo’s allies, journalists and anyone else who questions Fujimori’s hardball tactics, even accusing them of being “communists” and “terrorists”. This condemns Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, for her “hate speech and discrimination” and asking all Peruvians Accept Castillo’s apparent victory.

“The Fujimorists have created this anti-communist idea as a façade to allow people to give up their racism,” Chilean historian José Ragas of the Catholic University of Chile told Al Jazeera. “Fujimori’s only solution is to take everyone with him.”

When they finally confirm the winner, as independent observers expect, Castillo will play a major role in directing Peru’s economic list and driving its polarized society above the pandemic, even as many Peruvians question its legitimacy.

The country’s economy shrank by 11 percent last year and plunged millions into poverty, including more than a million children. Although the outgoing government of interim President Francisco Sagasti has signed 60 million COVID-19 vaccination contracts, they have so far fully vaccinated less than 5% of the population of 32 million people.

But it is still unclear which direction Castillo’s administration will take. He initially campaigned on his party’s far-left platform, repeatedly citing Free Peru, Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Fidel Castro, and proposed nationalizing large parts of the national economy. “Poor people are not in a rich country,” was the slogan of his campaign.

One of the main promises was to renegotiate contracts with foreign mining companies, force them to leave 70% of their profits in the country and channel 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) to health and education – a serious economist is not.

However, there is a chance that Castillo will moderate his policies and select a center-left cabinet.

He may have little choice if he wants to avoid a sterile and dangerous confrontation with a fragmented, populist and right-wing incoming congress. Despite being the largest party, Free Peru will have only 37 members of parliament in the 130-member body of the chamber.

A sign saying “Don’t confuse me with my vote” appears when supporters of Peru’s presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori gather in Lima, Peru, on June 9, 2021 [File: Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters]

However, he may be much more ideologically flexible in Free Peru, as he is not a member and was the last party to get a presidential nomination due to a corruption conviction.

“Identity policy is never far from the surface of Peru. Ideological differences in Lima are much more important in Lima than in the rest of the country, ”Anthony Medina Rivas, a political politician at Al Jazeera, told Santa Maria Catholic University in Arequipa.

“Castillo’s rise is not because he is left-wing, but because he comes from below. He never said he was a Marxist, a socialist or a communist. What it is, it is evangelical. “

However, his religious beliefs can also raise the issue of his ability to govern. A social conservative, he works against LGBTQ rights and abortion, and he opposes the progressive left so that it can govern its support.

Diana Miloslavich of the Flor Tristan Women’s Center, a feminist non-governmental organization, said: “I am hopeful. It will have to form a broad coalition and gender issues will be part of it. they must be included “.