Ultra-conservative businessman Rafael López Aliaga, known as the “Peruvian Bolsonaro”, took this Monday the ahead in the race for the coveted mayor of Lima displacing retired general Daniel Urreste, in the scrutiny of 97% of the minutes of the administrative elections in Peru.
López Aliaga obtained 23.58% of the votes cast, according to the new report of the electoral body Onpe, surpassing Urrei (22.76%), who on Sunday evening led the calculation in the first report of the elections of the mayor and governors.
“The triumph of López Aliaga is certain […]the the trend is irreversible“Political analyst and former ONPE head Fernando Tuesta said on Twitter.
The municipal seat of Lima, the main electoral square in the country, attracted attention in Sunday’s elections, which were held calmly in all the cities and towns of the Amazon, in the mountains and on the coast of Peru.
For López Aliaga, the mayor’s office is a kind of consolation prize, since it was defeated in the presidential elections in 2021 by the current president, the leftist Pedro Castillo. The entrepreneur then finished in third place.
Who is Lopez Aliaga?
A 61-year-old bachelor and affectionately referred to as “Porky” by his followers, López Aliaga earned the nickname “Bolsonaro” in the 2021 campaign, in which he revealed that he was Opus Dei and celibate, and that he flogged himself with a sackcloth. .
The businessman promised to “investment shock” of being elected mayor. The winner will have to be announced in the next few days by the electoral jury, although there may be objections from Urreste.
During his presidential campaign in 2021, López Aliaga insured him he practiced celibacy for 40 years. When asked how he manages to control his sexual desires of him, the entrepreneur assured that he thinks of the woman signed by Catholics as the mother of Christ.
“I tell the Virgin Mary well that you know what, you are more beautiful than that girl, so I am so in love with the Virgin Mary that it really fills me with peaceit fills me with joy, it fills me with strength ”, he assured.
Nearly 25 million Peruvians were called to the polls to elect 25 regional governors, 196 provincial mayors and 1,694 municipal mayors. The suffrage is mandatory in Peru.
The campaign did not generate enthusiasm and focused on the prestige of the candidates rather than on proposals or ideologies.
The deep disappointment of the citizens and the lack of interest in the elections was clearly perceived in the streets, where the comments were full of adjectives such as “thieves” or “corrupt” in a speech that usually ends with “they are all scoundrels”.
“I don’t know who I’m going to vote for because there aren’t any candidates as they should be,” Manuel, a street fruit vendor near a station in a working-class neighborhood in Lima, told EFE before the election.
In the province they led the candidates of local movements without links with national parties, but the the final results will be known during the week.
Source: AFP and EFE
Source: Clarin
