No political party will have a majority of seats in the Congress. What can a newly elected president feasibly do in this kind of climate?ĬALDERON: Right. And I mean, just last year, the country had three different presidents within the span of one week. This election is happening as Peru is struggling with an enormous economic crisis and one of the world's highest COVID death rates per capita. In 23 out of the 27 electoral regions in Peru, one of the candidates won by a 10% or more margin - Fujimori capturing the interest of voters mostly in the capital city, Lima, and in the north region of Peru, and Castillo having won the preferences by the people in the Andean region and in the south of our territory.ĬHANG: You know, I have to ask. Where are those votes from? And who are they expected to favor?ĬALDERON: It's going to be a close call in the general election, but there has been huge differences in some national results. So that leaves most of the population in a very difficult choice between which one is the lesser of two evils, and that has created a climate of tension and unrest in the population.ĬHANG: And I understand that as initial votes have been counted, it looked like Fujimori was in the lead, but there are still votes left to be counted. On the other hand, Castillo did something similar, stating that a vote for Fujimori represented corruption, disregard for the working class and theft by the rich. Fujimori has used allegations that voting for Castillo encompassed the return to poverty, to communism and even the rebirth of terrorism.
After that, he joined Peru Libre, a political party that is running for president.ĬHANG: And how have Peruvian voters generally been talking about this choice, this very stark choice that they have between these two very opposite candidates, Fujimori and Castillo?ĬALDERON: Well, it has been a very extremely polarized election, and I believe that both Fujimori and Castillo have used the antagonism as their main source of speech. He's a teacher of elementary school in Cajamarca, Peru, and he led this strike.
And Pedro Castillo is the leader of a political party of extreme left, who was most recently known in 2017, when he led a strike of teachers. Most notably, she is the daughter of a former president and now-imprisoned president because of charges of corruption and violation of human rights - Alberto Fujimori. Thank you for having me.ĬHANG: First of all, can you just tell us more about who these two candidates are?ĬALDERON: Keiko Fujimori is a political woman in Peru who has been running for president for the third time now. To help us understand what is happening, we're joined now by Andres Calderon, professor and researcher at University of the Pacific in Lima.ĪNDRES CALDERON: Hi, Ailsa. But politically, they are quite far apart, leaving much of the electorate polarized at this moment. The two candidates are neck and neck in the polls.
And now to a nail-biter in Peru - one day after Peruvians voted for their next president, the results remain too close to call.
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