The report written for the IFES by Rodrigo Villarreal1 on the 1995 Peruvian general elections depicts three interesting questions:
1. The Peruvian electoral law establishes that there must be a maximum of two hundred voters per voting station, so in the last general elections, the number of 70,456 voting stations meant an average of 176 voters each. This figure is too low, so a moderate rise in the number of possible voters per polling station could bring about a considerable saving in resources which are necessarily scarce.
2. Regarding the voters' register, the law does not establish any deadline for the publication of electoral lists of citizens registered to assert their right to vote. Neither the period of time they should be displayed once published. This is an anomaly regarding the residents within the national territory as well as those registered at embassies and consulates. The deficiency of preclusive deadlines makes any correction of the voters' register tremendously difficult, which evidently hampers elections from being held in a regular way. In fact, the IFES observers had informed that the electoral lists were only displayed on the day of the elections, which contravenes one of the guarantees of a free and fair electoral process: publicising the register. Prior to that day, it had been practically unknown to the voters and the parties, despite the complaints of the opposition parties and the international observers because of the lack of transparency.
3. In the third place, the legal obligation to place the list of voters at the disposal of the Armed Forces on the day of the elections is maintained, but it is not specified why. In any case, it is evident that there is no clear legal determination limiting the possibility of the competent civil electoral authorities from making any modification to or exclusion from the voters list.
