Fujimori nears victory in Peru's presidential count as the left calls for protests
Key takeaways
- Ten days after the June 7 presidential runoff, Peru still has no proclaimed winner, but the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori is heading toward victory.
- The remaining contested tally sheets come mostly from Lima and Callao, where Fujimori has her electoral stronghold, so analysts expect the gap to widen in her favor.
- That divergence, decisive in the result, led some sectors to question the vote of residents abroad, and an ally of S nchez filed an appeal to annul it.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Ten days after the June 7 presidential runoff, Peru still has no proclaimed winner, but the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori is heading toward victory. With 99.1% of the vote counted, she leads the left-wing Roberto S nchez by some 36,889 votes and is projected as the virtual winner, while the left pushes mobilizations and nullity appeals. The official proclamation remains pending on 0.84% of tally sheets under review, with a deadline of mid-July.
The remaining contested tally sheets come mostly from Lima and Callao, where Fujimori has her electoral stronghold, so analysts expect the gap to widen in her favor. At this point, it is practically impossible for S nchez to reverse the vote difference, said political scientist Fernando Tuesta, who described the runoff as one of the closest in the country's history, with a margin below 1%.
The count depicts a country split in two. The overseas vote, already tallied, heavily favored Fujimori —she won 76.4% in the United States, home to the largest Peruvian community abroad— while within Peru the balance tilted toward S nchez, with about 50.1% against 49.8%. That divergence, decisive in the result, led some sectors to question the vote of residents abroad, and an ally of S nchez filed an appeal to annul it.