Supporters of presumed President-elect Pedro Castillo and right-wing Keiko Fujimori took to the streets of Lima.

As a supporter of rival candidates, Peru’s highly competitive presidential election will face challenges after a new judge is sworn in on Saturday. Pedro Castillo Keiko Fujimori took to the streets of Lima to protest.

According to the complete ballot count, Castillo, a leftist teacher and union leader, declared his victory after receiving 50.12% of the support in the second round of voting on June 6th—about 44,000 votes more than rightwing Fujimori.

But the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori Suspected voter fraud -Although international observers said there were no serious irregularities in the election-her camp has asked the National Election Jury (JNE) to review thousands of ballots.

One of the four magistrates of the jury who reviewed the disputed ballots resigned after clashing with other officials over demands to cancel the ballots, and the country’s electoral process fell into further uncertainty this week.

On Saturday, the jury swore an oath to replace the new person to allow the process to be restarted. Jorge Salas, president of JNE, said: “The justice of the election cannot be paralyzed or obstructed, let alone at this stage.”

The polarized presidential election comes at a time of deep political divisions in Peru, which is struggling to cope with the rising number of COVID-19 infections and deaths, as well as the economic recession associated with the pandemic.

Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez reported in Lima that supporters of Keiko Fujimori and Pedro Castillo protested in the capital on Saturday night.

“The situation is very tense… it’s been 20 days [since the election] There are still no official results,” she said, adding that the police are trying to separate the hostile groups.

According to Sanchez, Castillo’s supporters have been urging the electoral authorities to prove the results, while Fujimori’s supporters responded to the right-wing candidate’s claim that voting was fraudulent and hoped to conduct a thorough investigation.

But she said that the Fujimori camp did not provide any evidence to support the fraud allegations.

“All the international observers who have been here-from the Organization of American States, Transparency International, the European Union, the US State Department, Canada-have stated that the elections are free and fair,” Sanchez said.

Supporters of Peruvian presidential candidate Pedro Castillo gather in San Martin Plaza in Lima on June 19 [Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters]

As Tensions continue to heat up, The recording of an imprisoned former intelligence adviser was leaked. He was a close collaborator of former President Alberto Fujimori, trying to influence the vote for Keiko Fujimori. The Navy has stated that it will investigate his phone calls from the Naval Base Prison.

“At a critical moment in our democratic life, a prisoner appeared on the scene and we were angry,” Prime Minister Violeta Bermudez told reporters on Saturday.

The new President of Peru will be sworn in on July 28, the country’s Independence Day.