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Peru’s electoral authority on Monday July 19, named socialist Pedro Castillo as the country’s next president, having officially won the June 6 runoff against right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori, who accepted the result but said she had been cheated.
“They have stolen thousands of votes from us,” Fujimori, the daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori, told a news conference.
She called on her followers to protest.
“We have the right to mobilize … but in a peaceful manner and within the framework of the law,” she said.
The Organization of American States, the European Union and Britain have all said the election was clean. The U.S. Embassy in Lima sent a tweet, welcoming the announcement.
“We value our close ties with Peru and hope to strengthen them with President elect Pedro Castillo after his inauguration on July 28,” the tweet said.
Castillo, 51-year-old former school teacher and the son of peasant, farmers in his first comments as president-elect, called for national unity. “I ask for effort and sacrifice in the struggle to make this a just and sovereign country,” he said.
Castillo has pledged to redraft the constitution and hike taxes on mining firms. Peru is the world’s second-largest copper-producing nation
But he has softened his rhetoric in recent weeks and hinted at a more moderate, market-friendly approach.
Castillo said on Monday that he would work toward economic stability.
“I ask that Keiko Fujimori not place barriers in the way, so that we may move forward and make this a government of all Peruvians,” he said.
