Peru’s election chief Piero Corvetto resigned Tuesday, citing logistical problems that affected the country’s April 12 presidential election, officials still have not declared winners more than a week after voting. In a letter to Peruvian authorities, Corvetto denied wrongdoing but said the operational failures during the election led him to step down as Peru prepares for a runoff on June 7.
Corvetto said the problems encountered during the April 12 vote prompted his resignation in order to “generate more confidence” in the runoff vote. The resignation comes as Peru continues counting votes and reviewing tally sheets arriving from remote areas and from Peruvian consulates abroad, with officials working to determine which candidates will advance to the second round.
The election required an additional day of voting after the agency failed to deliver voting materials to more than a dozen centers in Lima. Officials said the delivery failures prevented more than 52,000 people from casting their ballots on time, underscoring how the logistical breakdown became part of the dispute surrounding the election results.
The next stage hinges on deadlines set for Peru’s electoral process. On Monday, the electoral tribunal set May 15 as the deadline for officials to finish counting votes and name the candidates advancing to the second round in the “highly contested presidential election.”
More than 30 candidates competed in the April 12 presidential election, along with hundreds seeking seats in Congress. Because no candidate won more than 50% of the vote, Peru will hold the runoff on June 7 between the top two contenders.
With 93.8% of ballots counted, conservative leader Keiko Fujimori led the election with 17.04% of the vote, according to the latest tallies reported as part of the count underway. Roberto Sánchez, a nationalist congressman and former minister under imprisoned ex-President Pedro Castillo, was in second place with 12.01%, while ultraconservative former Mayor of Lima Rafael López Aliaga followed with 11.91%.
López Aliaga has challenged the partial results without providing evidence, saying in statements that a “gigantic fraud” was committed by Peruvian officials and calling for a “complementary” election that would allow hundreds of thousands of Peruvians who did not vote on April 12 to participate.
A European Union electoral observation mission sent to Peru last week said, while the election faced logistical problems, it did not find evidence of a fraudulent vote count. The runoff will decide who becomes Peru’s ninth president in just 10 years, replacing José María Balcázar, who was elected interim president in February after another interim leader was ousted over corruption allegations just four months into his term.