The election for the Municipality of Lima is not yet defined. The National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) concluded this Monday the processing of all electoral records corresponding to 26,351 polling stations. However, of this amount, only 24,430 minutes (92,710%) were counted.
And the remaining 1,921 minutes (7,290%) were sent to the Special Electoral Juries (JEE) of the capital, having been observed or because they contained a request for challenge or annulment made during the scrutiny.
To the 92.921% of minutes recorded (as of 5 pm on Monday)the Renovación Popular list, headed by Rafael López Aliaga, has 27,703% support (1,444,201 votes), while the Avanza País candidate for mayor of Lima, Francis Allison, 26,841% (1,399,280 votes). The difference, at the close of this note, is only 44,921 votes.
In this regard, Jorge Valdivia, member of the Cabinet of Advisors of the National Elections Jury (JNE), indicated that, for the moment, the entity cannot set a deadline to resolve the minutes observed in the election for the Municipality of Lima.
He added that first the procedural burden of the 10 JEE that operate in the capital must be known, remembering that the observed minutes of the elections in the 42 districts of the jurisdiction also reach these instances.
“Of these 1,924 minutes observed, none have yet reached us, we do not know how many correspond to each JEE,” he said at noon on Monday.
In dialogue with El Comercio, Valdivia specified that the deadline to resolve the observed minutes and carry out the vote count, which expires on October 28, only applies to the case of regional governments that are going to the second round.
“This applies to regional elections and not to municipal elections. Why? Because we are going to focus on the regional election, because we have to proclaim results so that there is a second round. We have to see in how many regions, resolve all the minutes observed and then establish the second election. And, in addition, inform the Presidency of the Republic to call (these elections, which will be held on November 29),” he remarked.
Unlike Sunday night, in which he practically recognized an eventual victory for López Aliaga, Allison affirmed that he is going to fight vote by vote.
“We are in a position that we can reverse, we are less than 1% apart and the number of minutes to be processed (observed) is more than 400 thousand votes. Of course we will fight until the last vote,” he said.
In an interview on “We Have to Talk,” a video podcast from El Comercio, the mayor of Magdalena also said that a large part of the minutes observed and challenged that must be analyzed in the JEE come from districts, such as San Juan de Lurigancho and Ate, where he has obtained a high vote.
When asked if it was a political mistake that he coordinated with López Aliaga to have a coffee, he responded “no” and that he always specified that they should wait for the official results. “I am a democrat. I am not like others who when they lose say that there is fraud or a midnight rush, that the results have changed, that is nonsense,” he added.
Allison also criticized that Avanza País, the party for which he ran, had not fully fulfilled its task of deploying table representatives.
“Today what is contested is contested. Taking into account how we are today, can I be mayor of Lima? Yes, elected mayor of Lima. Now the anger is in the special electoral juries and also in the JNE. Let me be clear, I can be elected mayor in a few days by finishing this”, he noted.
On Monday, until the closing of this note, López Aliaga avoided making a statement to the media, but on Sunday night, he said that he feared “an amphora” from the ONPE.
Through her He added that the residents of Lima “have recognized with their vote the work, the works and the vocation for service” of the leader of their group.
“We trust that this democratic process is fully respected and that Lima can continue to improve with works that directly impact the most vulnerable,” he tweeted.
In turn, Senator Katherine Ampuero (Popular Renewal) criticized the JNE for not having defined before the regional and municipal election whether López Aliaga, candidate for first councilor, if he wins the election, will receive or not his credential as mayor of Lima.
“I severely draw attention to the JNE, because this statement should have been given before the elections out of respect for the electorate. Now it has to respect the decision of the majority of Peruvians who voted this Sunday,” he said.
In statements to the press in the Hall of Lost Steps of Congress, Ampuero stressed that the JNE “cannot turn its back on the results not only in Lima, but in other parts of the country.”
After participating in the thanksgiving mass, organized by the brotherhood of the Lord of Miracles, in the Nazarenas church, the mayor of Lima, Renzo Reggiardo, questioned the entities of the electoral system, especially the ONPE.
“The results are always adjusted in the early mornings, they almost gave us a tie, that seems strange,” said the member of Renovación Popular.
Reggiardo, however, clarified that “I am not going to ignore the results” and asked the central government to declare the ONPE, the JNE and the Reniec in reorganization.
“I believe that the electoral entities have to enter into a reorganization, it is extremely necessary. I am going to respect the result, but we cannot be in this situation, of not knowing what is going to happen (…) All countries elect in the same night (their presidents and authorities), what happens with the electoral entities,” he criticized.
(Photo: Municipality of Lima)
The mayor of Lima reported that he already has the members of his transfer commission and that he is only waiting for the official results to be given. “Now we are going to see when they will come out,” he said.
Reggiardo indicated that the Municipality of Lima is not bankrupt and that his successor will receive it with a healthy economy and with works delivered, despite the debt of more than S/4,000 million, after the issuance of bonds in the López Aliaga administration to finance a set of works and at a high interest rate.
Political scientist Denisse Rodríguez Olivari considered that Allison made a political mistake, by not waiting for the figures from Datum’s quick count and then those from the ONPE before almost recognizing López Aliaga’s electoral victory. He added that the mayor of Magdalena had a democratic spirit, but also “not to antagonize.”
“He did not believe that he was less than one football state away (from the mayor’s office), although we are still waiting for the latest minutes. (And if they do not arrive), if they want to position themselves as a serious contender for the mayor’s office (by 2030) they would have to be in opposition to López Aliaga, considering that 70% do not support that candidacy,” he stated in We Have to Talk.
(Photo: Giancarlo Ávila/ El Comercio)
Rodríguez Olivari said that being in the opposition does not mean being an obstructionist and that, for example, it would be interesting for the Avanza País councilors to investigate the accounts of the Municipality of Lima, especially after the reports from the Fiscal Council regarding the debt and the million-dollar bond issue in recent years.
Regarding López Aliaga, the political scientist stressed that a great challenge awaits him in the coming years, when more than 70% have not supported him.
He criticized the JNE for not having clarified the situation of the Popular Renewal leader, in the sense, whether or not he will be able to assume the mayorship of Lima, if he wins.
“It surprises me in a very negative way that the electoral authorities, for some time now, allow themselves to be intimidated in this way by certain political groups. It is inconceivable that they are creating this type of precedent, we have more than 130 candidates, in a kind of covert re-election,” he said.
