A candidate named Hitler Mussolini wins the Queropalca mayoralty by 25 votes

The ONPE count gives the mayoralty of Queropalca, in Peru, to Hitler Mussolini Simeón Flores with 229 votes and a 25-vote margin. The proclamation is still pending.

With 100% of the tally sheets counted, Peru's National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) announced on October 9 that Hitler Mussolini Simeón Flores, 45, won the mayoralty of the Andean district of Queropalca, in the province of Lauricocha, Huánuco, with 229 votes, 34.54% of valid ballots.

The October 4 vote was decided by 25 ballots, according to the count published by La República: Gaspar Benilde Osorio Zambrano, of Renovación Popular, won 204 votes (30.77%), and Itala Yovana Santillán Vara, of País para Todos, 187 (28.21%). It is not the first time a candidate with that name has reached elective office in Peru: The Guardian recalls that Hitler Saavedra Casternoque was elected to Congress in 2021 and that Hitler Alba Sánchez won the mayoralty of the Andean district of Yúngar in 2018, when he campaigned as the good Hitler. The case adds one more entry to a coincidence of names that already has electoral precedent in Peru.

In Queropalca, 707 votes were cast: 663 valid, 30 blank and 14 null. The gap between first and second place was 3.77 percentage points, and Alianza para el Progreso added 35 ballots, while Somos Perú registered 8. Simeón Flores, born in the district on August 6, 1981, declared primary and secondary studies before the Jurado Nacional de Elecciones, according to La República, and was affiliated with Fuerza Popular until 2025, according to Infobae, which also reports that Ahora Nación, the group that nominated him, brought in academic Alfonso López Chau as a presidential candidate in April. The mayor-elect works in freight transport, according to The Guardian.

The official proclamation by the Jurado Electoral Especial is still pending and the office is assumed on January 1. The precedents of Yúngar and 2021 show that the coincidence reappears in Peruvian elections, and that a handful of votes in an Andean district is enough to bring it back into the international conversation.

This note was written with the assistance of artificial intelligence from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.

This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance from verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.