00:00And to go deep into the relevance of Peru's election, we invite statistics experts on fragile states, CĂ©sar Burga, sociologist
00:08and left-wing socialist activist from Peru.
00:11Hello, CĂ©sar. Welcome to From the South and thank you for joining us today.
00:15Thank you for joining us today.
00:16Thank you very much for your invitation.
00:19So, CĂ©sar, Peru's electoral process has been marked by irregularities, has been marked as well by political instability, by judicial
00:28scrutiny to progressive actors.
00:30Roberto Sanchez himself is a victim at this moment of this judicial persecution.
00:36I wanted to ask you, what does this development say about the democratic institutions of the country?
00:44Yes. So, first of all, it's necessary to remember that the current elections have been designed by the parliament, who
00:55took over the control of the power after Israel's president Castillo.
01:01So, after the coup the parliament, the far-right party in the parliament, did against President Castillo, they decided this
01:10electoral system in which they intentionally spread the vote of the opposition.
01:16So, in that way, they achieved that Keiko Fujimori, the leader of the far-right coalition, reached the second tour
01:28to the ballotage.
01:29And, well, the current elections are pretty much the outcome of this first electoral design.
01:38But even if the far-right parties controlled most of the electoral system, the people that voted for President Castillo
01:48were wanting to support the option of Roberto Sanchez.
01:59Who was precisely the, we can call that he's kind of the one who continues the legacy of President Castillo
02:06and they, the vote for, from a rural population, make Roberto Sanchez reach to the second tour.
02:14But this has not changed the main situation of Peru, which is basically that the contemporary elections have been conducted
02:25in a context in where far-right political parties have the control of, again, the electoral system and also the
02:33media and many of the judicial powers.
02:36So, it's a hard, it's a hard moment, but we are, we are, we believe that the people is going
02:44to make President Roberto Sanchez.
02:47We believe that there is a far majority of the Peruvian population that wants a change in the system and
02:54wants to reject the return of Fujimori's dictatorship,
02:58which will be the case if Keiko Fujimori's chosen President.
03:03And in the same vein, the vote count is in a very early stage and also I wanted to ask
03:10you and go deeper into Keiko's proposals.
03:13Keiko Fujimori has once again reached runoff election.
03:17She is the daughter of dictator Alberto Fujimori, who has been known by human rights activists and the people in
03:25general as bringing a legacy of corruption, of abuses, of human rights abuses.
03:31How is this legacy of his father affecting and also how it's been shaping Keiko's candidacy?
03:42Yes, well, first of all, it's true that we have some preliminary outcomes that have been released by the national
03:50election authorities,
03:52but also we have had some pools that have been released by ESG survey enterprises.
04:00They are more aligned with Keiko Fujimori and they have shown some outcomes in which Keiko Fujimori appears to be
04:08the winner of the second of the ballotage.
04:13But again, this is part of this kind of strategy that has been developed by far right parties.
04:18Generally, what happens in the elections is that pools show that the far right party goes to the second tour
04:27or wins the election.
04:28And after that, when they lose in the in the in the in the in the real count of the
04:36votes of people, when they when they lose, they use this false information from the polls to claim electoral fraud
04:44and start a campaign against the elected president.
04:49At least this is what happened with President Castillo. So let's be aware about what may happen if Roberto Sanchez
04:57wins the election and then Keiko Fujimori doesn't want to acknowledge her defeat.
05:03But going to your question, the question about why Keiko Fujimori is is there and what she represents.
05:10Yes, she actually represents the return of of Fujimori dictatorship.
05:14And it was a government that violate a lot of human rights and also started the privatization of our resources
05:22and also implemented the neural model in in Peru.
05:26But it's necessary to keep in mind that Keiko Fujimori passes the second tour because she designed an electoral system
05:34in which she could become the favorite.
05:39I mean, in the electoral system, she spread the vote of the opposition.
05:42So she became the first majority. There is 15 or 16 percent of the population who remains followers of Fujimori.
05:50So she became the first minority among all the political options. And that's what makes her go to the second
05:57tour.
05:57So when she's in the second in the ballotage, what happens is that the media put the idea that she's
06:04the only solution against the arrival of communism and terrorism.
06:08And the media plays an important role shaping opinion, principally of middle class, which is scared about any left change.
06:19So there is there is a pretty clear organization from far right parties allied with the media to keep to
06:28avoid any possibility of change.
06:30And that's actually what produces that Keiko Fujimori is now in the ballotage.
06:36It's not the case that there is a huge majority that wants to vote for the legacy of Alberto Fujimori.
06:42is that she designed a system in which she was the first minority and then the media is scared about
06:51the possibility of a left change in Peru.
06:56It shapes the opinion so people are scared of any change that and they assure that Keiko Fujimori wins the
07:03election.
07:04So that's kind of the thing in Peru now. It's not that, again, it's not that people want to vote
07:11for Fujimorism, but that they are influenced and manipulated by media
07:16and also by this electoral design of the electoral system.
07:23Thank you very much, Cesar, for your time here from the south and your analysis in this crucial day for
07:28Peruvians and also for the whole region.
07:30We are going to be very attentive. Thank you very much for your information. Thank you.
Comments