According to the report from the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE), of the 6,978 voters authorized to vote in the Pataz district, some 3,664 did not come to vote, which represents 52,508%. For this reason, the JEE of Pataz made its decision under literal b of article 36 of Law No. 26864, modified by Law No. 32657.
The electoral body also took into account what was reported by the Decentralized Office of Electoral Processes (ODPE) of Pataz and the Supervision Area of the Electoral Jury of Pataz regarding the fact that on October 4, the date on which the 2026 Regional and Municipal Elections were held, no acts of violence occurred in the district of Pataz.
Only José Torrealva Yparraguirre ( Podemos Peru ) and Miguel Orlando Mantilla Rodríguez ( Alliance for Progress ) participated in the electoral contest in the Pataz district. The former obtained first place in the count with 1,464 votes, which represents 67,590%, while the latter obtained 702 votes, which constitutes 32,410%.
This is the result of the municipal elections in Pataz.
The decision of Pataz’s JEE was made ex officio and rejected the request made by the legal representative of the Alliance for Progress party, Carlos Enrique Cabrera Alvarado, to annul the elections in the Liberteño district, arguing that it was untimely. Nor did it take into account the request made by Nilton Jhonson López Medina, legal representative of Podemos Peru, who argued that the results should be respected and not apply literal b of article 36 of Law No. 26864.
Sources of The Commerce They indicated that both candidates for mayor of Pataz would allegedly have ties to informal mining. Torrealva appears as the owner or manager of four companies dedicated to the transportation or exploitation of gold, and one linked to the storage of explosives. For his part, Mantilla Rodríguez appears as the owner or representative of five companies, three of which are dedicated to cargo transportation and two to mining operations.
Expert opinion
José Naupari, specialist in electoral issuesexplained that there have been cases of annulment of municipal elections in the country due to voter absenteeism, he even recalled that the most striking event was the one that occurred in the district of Huacachi, in Áncash, in 2012.
“It is not something that happens for the first time, generally complementary municipal elections are carried out because a list of candidates is not presented or there is absenteeism,” said the specialist.
“The most dramatic case was that of Huacachi, where there were complementary elections several times because people were not going to vote. This caused the Ombudsman’s Office to present a project to establish that if there is an issue linked to a cause of nullity due to absenteeism, in the complementary election the cause of nullity due to absenteeism no longer applies to avoid cases like Huacachi,” he added.
José Naupari is a specialist in electoral issues.
/ HUGO PEREZ
Naupari explained that the annulment of municipal elections occurs more in small electoral districts that are difficult to access. “It can happen in small towns, where you elect a mayor and five councilors, there are few tables and there is little population,” he said.
Although he indicated that the declaration of nullity issued by the JEE of Pataz can be appealed before the JNE, he clarified that it would only be for a quantitative reason, that is, due to an error in the sum of the votes of said elections and not for other reasons.
Annulment of elections due to absenteeism is not very common, according to a lawyer
Jorge Jáuregui, lawyer specialized in Constitutional and Electoral Lawindicated that the annulment of municipal elections in a certain city due to absenteeism “is not very common,” but clarified that it is not an arbitrary decision by the JEE of Pataz.
“It is not very common, but it should be noted that it is not an arbitrary decision of the JEE of Pataz, but rather it is provided for in the Municipal Elections Law that establishes a threshold for electoral participation. Another reason to declare nullity is if the null or blank votes exceed the valid votes by two thirds,” he stated.
Jáuregui explained that what happened in Pataz may be due to the fact that a large number of people who were born in said district migrated to other cities, such as Trujillo or Santiago de Chuco, and it is difficult for them to return due to the poor condition of the road and the few access roads that exist.
The specialist clarified that in Pataz a new election and not complementary elections will be held, in order to avoid confusing voters. “We are talking about a new municipal election that must be called to elect the authorities. It is a new electoral process,” he pointed out.
He agreed to continue maintaining the rule that stipulates the annulment of an election if there is more than 50% absenteeism of qualified voters. “The objective is to guarantee that representation at the local level is a consequence of broad citizen participation. The threshold it establishes seems reasonable,” he said.
They report that a large number of Pataz citizens have migrated to other cities
A large group of miners who resided in the Pataz district have decided to migrate to other cities in La Libertad because their Comprehensive Mining Formalization Registry (Reinfo) has already expired or has been suspended and due to the presence of the Pataz Unified Command (Cupaz), indicated the comprehensive security analyst Pedro Yaranga to El Comercio.
“Lately with the issue of the occupation of the Pataz Unified Command (Cupaz) (the miners) have continued to have problems and the invasion of crime has become widespread. Not even the presence of the military and police has reduced crime,” said the specialist.
Pedro Yaranga, expert in comprehensive security.
/ NUCLEO-PHOTOGRAPHY > CESAR CAMPOS
“Almost all of the miners have already lost their Reinfo, so the largest number of people are no longer in Pataz and have gone to another place, like Trujillo, which is why it would be absenteeism in Pataz,” he added.
However, he highlighted that 30,000 to 35,000 people from other cities have arrived in the Pataz district to engage in various activities, but related to commerce and transportation. “There are a large number of people who only go to work,” he explained.
Yaranga did not rule out the emergence of a social conflict over the issue of the annulment of the elections in the Pataz district.
In six districts the nullity of the elections was declared due to absenteeism
Luis Rivera, software engineerexplained to El Comercio that there are seven districts that meet a cause of nullity and that they must hold new elections, six of them due to absenteeism and one because the white and tainted votes exceed two-thirds of the number of valid votes.
The districts in which there will be new elections due to absenteeism are Chachas (Arequipa), Pataz (La Libertad), Pebas (Loreto), Yaraví (Loreto), Fitzcarrald (Madre de Dios) and Yurúa (Ucayali). In Lari (Arequipa) a new electoral process will be carried out due to the large number of white and tainted votes.
These are the districts of the country in which the nullity of municipal elections has been declared due to absenteeism. (Graphic piece: Luis Rivera/@chubakueno)
A particular case, according to Rivera, occurs in the district of Puyca (Arequipa), since it has an absenteeism of 50%, but it does not exceed the threshold of more than 50%, so there will not be a new election.
He recalled that, in 2022, the elections in 12 districts were annulled, 10 of them due to numerical considerations and 2 of them due to serious irregularities, acts of violence.
“Comparing the 12 districts with annulled elections in 2022 with the last election, the loss of records due to acts of violence or annulments due to non-attendance or more null targets is not such a strange case in 2026,” he specified.
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