Peruvian general election, 2000

The 2000 national election in Peru was highly controversial and widely considered to have been fraudulent. President Alberto Fujimori won the election and a third term in office. However, the election was tainted with allegations of unconstitutionality, bribery, structural bias, and outright electoral fraud. Alejandro Toledo boycotted the second round of the election, in which an enormous amount of ballots were declared to be invalid. Ultimately, Fujimori called for new elections, fled Peru, and faxed in his resignation from a hotel in Japan.

Constitutional issues

The Constitution of Peru specifically limits presidents to two terms, and Fujimori relied on the legally questionable theory that the restriction did not apply to him in 2000 because the Constitution was written after he nullified the previous constitution, at which time he was already in power. The electoral bodies, the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) and National Jury of Elections (Peru) (JNE), were staffed at the time with Fujimori supporters who were considered by many to be corrupt. These bodies accepted Fujimori's argument.

tructural bias

Many observers believed that the government structures were set up in a way that gave Fujimori's re-election bid an unfair advantage. For example, the United States Department of State noted that generals of the Peruvian Army were removed from their positions if anti-Fujimori protests occurred in their jurisdiction, providing the army with an incentive to crack down on anti-government protesters. A cable from the American embassy to Peru noted that "gigantic pro-Fujimori slogans appeared on the sides of hills within some military reservations and bases. Mostly at night but sometimes in broad daylight, troops have been sighted from Tacna to Tumbes painting pro-Fujimori slogans and blacking out the slogans of opposition candidates. Military vehicles have been made available to government candidates to transport supplies and people at no charge" and that "routine public works projects" were arraigned "to maximize electoral impact." [2000 Lima 2169. "The State of the Military on the Eve of Elections." April 7, 2000. [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB72/tmontesinos6.pdf Available online] . Hosted by the National Security Archive.]

Fraud

The elections were also marred with accusations of outright fraud. During the campaign, a El Comercio broke a story about a "fábrica de firmas" (signature factory) in which many people worked signing a petition to register a pro-Fujimori political party. Several of the people involved admitted to their part in this scheme. Perhaps most damning, they had copied the signatures of voters from official ONPE voter-registration lists, which were provided to them. [Conaghan, Catherine M. (2005). "Fujimori's Peru: Deception in the Public Sphere". Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 180-181.]

Shortly before the election, several people, including JNE workers, were arrested for their part in the theft of ballots. They were caught with the ballots, many of which had been filled out. The plurality of these ballots was filled out with votes for Fujimori and his electoral allies. [Conaghan, Catherine M. (2005). "Fujimori's Peru: Deception in the Public Sphere". Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 96.]

Boycott

After Fujimori was declared the victor of the first round, Alejandro Toledo called for a boycott of the second round. Fujimori responded by reminding voters that Peruvian law makes voting obligatory, and that anyone boycotting the election could be fined. Toledo then suggested that his supporters to cast spoiled ballots. The result was that while votes for Toledo declined from 40.24% of the valid votes cast in the first round to 25.67% of the valid votes in the second round, invalid votes jumped from 2.25% in of the total votes cast in the first round to 29.93% of total votes in the second round. That such a large percentage of votes were thrown out as invalid shows that many Peruvians took Toledo's advice and deliberately spoiled their ballots.

Results

Notes