Supporters of Pedro Castillo want to maintain the election results, while supporters of Keiko Fujimori want the vote to be invalid.

As tensions increased due to the results of the June 6 presidential election, thousands of supporters of socialist Pedro Castillo (Pedro Castillo) and conservative Keiko Fujimori (Keiko Fujimori) walked in Peru on Saturday. Take to the streets.

Castillo won 50.125% of the votes with a difference of 44,058 votes and declared his victory.

Fujimori received 49.875% of the vote and claimed that there was large-scale election fraud.

In Lima, Peru, supporters of Castillo gathered in the “2 de Mayo” square, calling for the official announcement of the left-wing candidate as president-elect.

Fujimori supporters also staged a confrontational demonstration in another part of the city, demanding the cancellation of the second round of elections.

The National Election Jury said it is still reviewing the ballots and has not yet announced the winner.

“We will not allow them to ignore public opinion and the election results. We will defend democracy,” said Veronika Mendoza, a former left-wing presidential candidate who participated in the Castillo rally.

“Unfortunately, Mrs. “K” [Keiko Fujimori] She is a corrupt woman. She should not be the president. She should accept her failure because democracy has been won here and the people’s fair vote,” said Ruben, another demonstrator who supported Castillo.

International observers stated that there was no evidence of fraud and the election was clean.

The polling agency Ipsos Peru also stated that it conducted a statistical analysis of the votes and found no evidence of abnormal voting patterns, which would benefit one candidate over another.

But Fujimori, the daughter of the imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori, showed no signs of concession.

“We will not accept that our votes were stolen,” she told her supporters in Lima.

Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori gestures to supporters in Lima, Peru on June 19, 2021 [Gerardo Marin/ Reuters]

“We will give our lives to the country; this is not about Keiko, but about Peru, not terrorism, not communism,” said Nancy Farah, who participated in the rally in support of Fujimori.

The tense vote count was the culmination of a fiercely divided election in Peru. Many low-income citizens supported Castillo, while most wealthy people voted for Fujimori.

The opposing candidates promised to take very different remedial measures to rescue Peru from the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

This Andean country has the worst coronavirus death rate in the world, with more than 187,000 deaths out of its 33 million population.

Official data show that during the pandemic, another 2 million Peruvians lost their jobs, and nearly one-third of the country’s people are now living in poverty.

The 46-year-old Fujimori promised to follow the free market model and maintain economic stability, while the 51-year-old Castillo promised to redraft the national constitution to strengthen the role of the state, obtain more profits from mining companies, and nationalize key assets. Industry-Peru is the world’s second largest copper producer.