It’s been nine days since the runoff election between conservative candidate Keiko Fujimori and leftist Roberto Sánchez, and Peruvians are still waiting for a clear result from the closely contested election.
As of June 15, Fujimori continues to lead with 50.051% of the vote compared to Sánchez’s 49.949%. This is a difference of approximately 18,300 votes. Reuters.
As of Monday, approximately 98.59% of votes had been counted.
Sánchez held a slight lead for the first three days after the election, but the result was overturned last Wednesday, with Fujimori slightly ahead when overseas ballots began arriving in the capital. Conservative candidates have historically had an advantage in overseas voting.
But Peru’s highest electoral court, the National Electoral Tribunal (JNE), reiterated on Tuesday that final results would not be available until mid-July.
But Peruvians are no strangers to electoral uncertainty. In 2021, it took Keiko Fujimori 43 days to officially declare Pedro Castillo president-elect after hundreds of legal challenges accusing him of fraud. Castillo ultimately won by just 44,000 votes out of more than 17 million cast.
Fujimori, the daughter of former authoritarian President Alberto Fujimori, leads the right-wing Fuerza People’s Party and is about to run for president for the fourth time after winning runoffs in each of the previous three elections.
Her opponent, Sánchez, is a leftist lawmaker who has campaigned to address inequality and the deep socioeconomic gap between the capital Lima and rural Peru.
He was seen as a torchbearer for the political movement of imprisoned former President Castillo, due to his controversial relationship with Antauro Humala, a former Peruvian army major and founder of the racist movement known as the 2005 “Andauailazo” military uprising.
Alfredo Torres, director of polling firm Ipsos Peru, warned early last week that overseas voting could change the results in Fujimori’s favor.
Both candidates called for calm as they await the final vote count.
On June 7, election night, Sánchez celebrated with his supporters after a quick count by Ipsos and Datum showed him narrowly ahead.
Afterwards, as Fujimori took the lead, his political party, Juntos por el Perú, claimed ‘election fraud’ and requested the abolition of 2,400 polling stations where Fujimori had the upper hand due to ‘repetition of the same voting pattern’.
Party Secretary-General Ernesto Zunini once again lowered his stance and called for calm, saying he would accept the citizens’ vote.
Fujimori told his supporters to wait with “patience and calmness.” On Tuesday, she expressed cautious optimism, saying her team’s statistical analysis pointed to “a lot of hope” from overseas votes and controversial ballot boxes, most of which came from Lima, but stopped short of claiming victory.
“It is very premature to declare a winner. It is my duty to wait,” she said.
JNE spokesman Jorge Valdivia said authorities were still working to resolve disputed voting records and other obstacles raised by both parties. According to the Office for National Elections (ONPE), which manages the official vote tally, 1,635 voting records remain awaiting review by the Special Electoral Jury (JEE), which began counting votes last Friday.
JNE also confirmed there was no evidence of fraud. ONPE said the remaining votes will continue to be processed as election authorities review disputed voting records and legal issues.
The European Union’s election monitoring mission reflected this assessment. Representative Annalisa Corrado said the EU had deployed 150 observers across the country since the end of February to monitor the vote in accordance with Peruvian law and international standards. The mission will continue to observe the final stages of the process and present a final report in August, he added.
The close results were broadly consistent with pre-election polls. The last Ipsos poll before the election, published on May 31, showed Fujimori with a narrow lead of 38% to Sánchez’s 35%. That’s too close to predict the outcome, with a three-point difference well within the margin of error.
Featured Image: Peruvians await the results of the June 7 presidential election.
Image credit: ONPE via Facebook.
