Elections 2022: More than 1,400 candidates for regional governments and mayors registered their background

The Data Journalism Unit of Trade reviewed the information given by the applicants to the regional governments (GORE), provincial and district mayors to the National Election Jury (JNE) and verified that 1,403 candidates (12% of the total) state that they have had judicial sentences.

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Of these, 627 reported having a criminal record. For their part, 972 registered civil records. 196 reported having both criminal and civil histories.

The political organization that has the most candidates for the GORE and mayoralties with judicial records is We are Peru: 77 recorded criminal sentences and 116 civil. follow him Alliance for Progress (74 criminal and 104 civil) and Free Peru (44 criminal and 66 civil).

For the secretary general of the Transparency Civil Association, Ivan LanegraContrary to what one might think, the figures are not a symptom of the lack of filters of the political organizations. As he explains, the groups tend to prioritize candidates who have resources and contacts that facilitate the capture of votes, regardless of their history with the justice system.

“For a long time we have said that parties have bad filters. But the truth is that they do not do any filtering because their concern is not to have suitable candidates, but to have those people who have the resources to win the election.”, he maintains.

Political scientist Mauricio Zavaleta agrees. “Filters are practically nonexistent, even more so at the subnational level, because what interests the movement or political party is to have competitive candidates. If the candidate has some type of assets, has a company, is known, etc., he will enter the list regardless of whether he has processes. What matters is that it brings votes”, he assures.

By territory and type of government

At the territorial level, the region of the country that presents the most candidates for GORE and mayorships with criminal convictions is Lima, with 65. It is followed by Cusco (44), Cajamarca (42), Arequipa (40) and Apurímac (35). For their part, the regions with the most applicants with a civil background are Áncash (109), Lima (96), Cajamarca (79), Arequipa (63) and Ayacucho (62).

On the other hand, a total of 1403 applicants for the position of regional governor (12%) registered sentences. Of these, 627 correspond to criminal cases and 972 to civil cases. 196 candidates reported having both criminal and civil convictions.

At the provincial level, meanwhile, 267 mayoral candidates (17%) declared they had criminal records, of which 127 are criminal and 181 civil. 41 applicants declared having criminal and civil records.

Among the applicants for district mayors, 1,113 (11%) have convictions. Of these, 491 have criminal records, 774 civil and 153 have both types of records.

The “additional information”

Although the resume format of the JNE It has a specific section to declare judicial sentences, there are candidates who recorded them in the “additional information” section. In this way, if one reviews only the sentences section and does not find declared information, one could mistakenly think that the applicant has no criminal record.

For Lanegra, this “could be a combination of inexperience and, sometimes, the attempt to make (the sentence) go unnoticed.” According to the specialist, although it should not be a cause to exclude the candidate, the JNE Yes, you should request that the information be corrected so that it is placed in the correct section.

On the other hand, a total of 89 candidates declared that they had ongoing investigations or processes. Among them, there is even an applicant who is serving a nine-month preventive detention order since last May. Is about Dani Cesar Vasquez Saldanacandidate for district mayor of Tingo de Saposoa (province of Huallaga, San Martín region) for Alliance for Progresswho is being investigated for the alleged crime of illicit drug trafficking.

In this regard, Zavaleta considers that it must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. This is because it is common for candidates to include former public officials who, due to the nature of the position they held, have investigations against them.

“Even if you are a good official, if you have a public career and have been a regional mayor or governor, you will have processes, it is almost impossible that you do not have them,” he indicates.

For his part, Lanegra considers that, although the political participation of people with processes in progress cannot be limited – that is, without a sentence – due to the principle of presumption of innocence, it should be mandatory for the candidates to declare if they are immersed in some process. Currently, it is not mandatory to declare ongoing investigations or processes in JNE resumes. “It’s a situation that deserves transparency,” she says.

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