PERU was rocked by a national strike today as thousands of workers walked out demanding that Pedro Castillo be formally announced as president-elect, nearly three weeks after his election victory was declared.

The Workers’ General Confederation and Mr Castillo’s Free Peru party called the action amid growing fears of a Bolivian-style coup to prevent the self-declared Marxist-Leninist from taking up the post.

The National Election Jury (JNE) has not yet officially declared Mr Castillo as the Andean country’s president-elect, despite announcing the result of the poll putting him ahead of rival Keiko Fujimori by about 44,000 votes.