Puebla Group Calls to Respect Election Results in Peru

The Puebla Group called on Peruvian institutions and political actors to respect the presidential election's results and refrain from promoting political upheaval in the country.

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"The June 6 election is a historic opportunity to regain confidence in the institutions, which, in recent years, has suffered a serious crisis, undermining the democratic stability of Peru," The Puebla Group representatives said. 

The Puebla Group released the communique after the National Election Board (JNE) refuted to extend the timeline for filing nullity appeals presented by Fujimori against some 802 polling stations' results comprising over 200.000 votes.

JNE's decision was supported by several international observation missions, including the Organization of American States (OAS) electoral mission, which recognized a "positive" and "with no serious irregularities" presidential elections. 

On Saturday, the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) maintained the leftist Free Peru (PL) candidate Pedro Casillo first over his rival, the conservative candidate Keiko Fujimori. 

Castillo secured 50.1 percent of the votes, while Fujimori gained 49.8 percent in the June 6 presidential elections runoff. 

Fujimori's first reaction to the JNE's order was to challenge it, but no motion has been filed so far. The right-wing candidate is facing a preventive prison request to be decided on Jun. 21 for alleged acts of corruption linked to Odebrecht.