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Police in Peru raided the home of now-resigned elections chief Piero Corvetto and five other officials on Friday as part of a widening investigation into a ballot shortage and other irregularities during the April 12 first round of the presidential election, according to anti-corruption police. Agents and prosecutors also raided the home of the legal representative of Galaga, a private company responsible for transporting election ballots to voting centers, police said.
The raids came after Corvetto resigned Tuesday to take responsibility for election shortcomings and said in a letter to authorities that he was stepping down “to generate more confidence” in the June 7 runoff vote. In the same reporting, Corvetto denied any wrongdoing.
Corvetto’s lawyer, Ricardo Sánchez, told a local radio station that Judge Manuel Chuyo had ordered the raid but rejected a prosecutorial request to take Sánchez’s client into custody. Police said agents gathered mobile phones, documents and other evidence during the searches.
The election probe focuses on operational problems that affected voting materials on election day. The April 12 election had to be extended for an additional day after Peru’s elections agency failed to deliver voting materials to more than a dozen centers in Lima, which prevented more than 52,000 people from casting their ballots on time.
The dispute over the vote also spilled into political rhetoric, with criticism including from ultraconservative candidate Rafael López Aliaga, who claimed, without providing evidence, that an “electoral fraud unique in the world” occurred in Peru. López Aliaga also labeled Corvetto a “criminal” and said he would pursue him “until he dies,” according to the same account. An electoral mission from the European Union urged political actors to refrain from violent rhetoric and said it has ruled out any indications of fraud.
With 95.1% of the ballots tallied, Keiko Fujimori led the count on Friday with 17.05%, followed by nationalist Roberto Sánchez with 12.03% and López Aliaga with 11.90%. The European Union mission’s call for restraint came as the tally approached a point where Peru’s runoff participants would be determined.
Peru’s Electoral Tribunal rejected demands for supplementary elections at polling stations affected by the logistical failures, saying the move was “unfeasible.” The request was spearheaded by López Aliaga and backed by Fujimori as “reasonable,” and the tribunal urged all parties to act “responsibly,” adding that the electoral process had not concluded.
Peru’s Electoral Tribunal announced a May 15 deadline to officially declare which two candidates will advance to the presidential runoff, as reported in earlier coverage by MSI. Peru’s court sets May 15 deadline for naming presidential runoff finalists