This article published by The Global Americans is written by Hari Seshasayee. Here is an excerpt:

On April 11, 2021, Peru achieved a dubious distinction that has yet to receive much public attention: for the first time in the history of global electoral democracy, the total of blank and null votes exceeded the amount of votes received by any single candidate running to serve as a country’s head of state.

Sometimes referred to as “protest” votes, a total of 3,313,086 votes cast in the first round of Peru’s elections were discarded as either blank or null—markedly more than the 2,724,752 votes received by Pedro Castillo or the 1,930,762 votes received by Keiko Fujimori (who will face off in the fast approaching second-round runoff election to be held this Sunday, June 6).  

If we include the 7.5 million Peruvians that abstained from voting altogether—and paid fines ranging from USD $6 to USD $80 for their absenteeism—a whopping 43 percent of Peruvians elected to abstain, voted blank, or invalidated their votes.

Read the full article here.