LIMA — Peru’s presidential election descended into administrative theatre on Sunday after authorities confirmed that ballots had failed to reach a significant number of voting centers across the country — a logistical oversight that officials described as “regrettable” and that voters described using words not suitable for publication.
The National Elections Jury, in a move unprecedented in Peruvian democratic history, announced that voting would be extended by an additional day to allow citizens who had arrived at empty polling stations — some of whom had queued since before dawn — to complete their civic duty.
By Monday evening, the country still did not know who its next president was, with electoral officials citing “ongoing tabulation processes,” “technical difficulties,” and what one regional administrator described as “a situation we are actively not making worse.”
“We had the polling stations. We had the officials. We had the voters. We did not, regrettably, have the ballots. In retrospect, those were fairly important.”
— Peruvian electoral spokesperson, at a press conference nobody had planned for
Both leading presidential candidates declared themselves confident of victory based on exit polls, internal data, and, in one case, a dream a campaign manager had on Friday night. Neither candidate addressed the question of how votes could be counted when a significant portion had not yet been cast.
International election observers, who had flown in from seventeen countries to monitor the process, issued a joint statement describing the situation as “unusual,” “concerning,” and “honestly kind of impressive in its own way.”
Social media in Peru was consumed with a national debate about whether extending an election mid-election constitutes a do-over, a technical foul, or simply democracy running in beta.
The United States Embassy in Lima released a statement expressing confidence in Peru’s democratic institutions and urging calm — a statement described by Lima residents as “very nice of them.”
As of press time, some regions were still voting, some were still waiting for ballots, and at least one polling center in the Andes had reportedly run out of pencils.
Globe News Daily notes that this is technically the most democratic election possible: nobody knows what’s happening, which is exactly how most voters feel every time.
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