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The new decision was taken by 3 votes against 1. Hours before, the magistrates had modified the calendar to reception these appeals until 8:00 p.m. this Friday, despite the date expiring officially last Wednesday.
The National Jury of Elections (JNE)had earlier decided to extend the deadline for submitting requests to annul voting records of the presidential elections held last Sunday in Peru, local media reported. But in a new vote, the body voted against the measure it had approved hours earlier.
The portal IDL-Reporteros indicated that the measure was taken "unanimously" by the whole body, which extended by 48 hours the limit established by the electoral regulations to file claims. This term had already expired at 20.00 hours local this past Wednesday.
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He added that his sources told him that this decision was promoted by Supreme Prosecutor Luis Arce, representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office in the JNE, and by lawyer Jorge Rodriguez, representative of the law schools of private universities.
The newspaper La República added that "the initiative was drafted in the general secretariat of the entity and was unanimously approved by the magistrates to provide transparency and respond to all requests."
CLAIMS
This extension, which the JNE has not formally announced, comes after, according to IDL-Reporteros, Fujimori's Popular Force party tried to "assert more than 590 nullity requests presented after the deadline".
According to the media, as of Thursday afternoon, Fuerza Popular had presented 741 requests for the nullification of polling stations in the country and abroad, while Peru Libre, the party of leftist candidate Pedro Castillo, had presented 30 requests.
"Of that set, only 165 requests were presented within the legal term", remarked the media outlet before specifying that 151 of these correspond to Fuerza Popular and 14 to Perú Libre.
MESSAGE FROM CASTILLO
In a message on Twitter, Castillo referred to this decision with a terse statement, where he denounced a possible attack "to the electoral order."
"If it is true that the JNE would pretend to extend the deadline to present nullities of minutes, it would be violating the electoral order. I call on the president of the JNE to make a pronouncement providing legal certainty to the process. Finally, we call the Peruvian people to remain alert", said the candidate.
One day after having processed 100 % of the electoral records, the decision was taken, with 99.587 % counted.
With this percentage, the leftist candidate Pedro Castillo of the Peru Libre party currently has 8,818,830 votes, while the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori has 8,759,077.
The difference in votes is impossible for the right-wing candidate to overcome, even though she is still within the mathematical options.
A resolution issued by the JNE on February 7, 2018, had stipulated that the maximum period for the presentation of requests for polling station nullity and election nullity due to facts external to the polling stations is three calendar days, starting from the election date. This period had expired last Wednesday.
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