Blank and null votes in Peru outnumber all presidential candidates

Blank and null votes in the Peruvian presidential elections exceed 3 million, a figure higher than the votes received by the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori, who leads the count, with an advance of 93.34% of the votes counted, according to the official scrutiny of the elections by the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE).

Between blank and invalid votes, 3,142,121 votes are registered, which is equivalent to 16.63% of the votes cast, while Fujimori is the most voted candidate with 2,685,995 votes, equivalent to 14.22% of the total, which becomes 17.05% in valid votes, when subtracting the blank and invalid ones. White votes currently reach 2,197,516, 11.63% of the total votes cast, while null votes total 944,605 ballots, 5% of the total votes counted. This situation was influenced by the range of 35 presidential candidates competing in this election, which has caused the vote to fragment to the point that the sum of blank and null votes exceeds the particular vote that each candidate has obtained.

Only the number of blank votes is higher than 34 of the 35 candidates in the race, and the number of invalid votes exceeds the votes obtained by 29 presidential candidates. Peruvian electoral law states that elections can only be annulled if the null votes reach two-thirds of the total votes cast.

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A tense election day

More than 27.3 million Peruvians were summoned last Sunday to elect their national authorities for the 2026-2031 period, including the Presidential one, for which eight presidents have passed in the last ten years in a succession of political crises. The election day was marked by major delays in the opening of polling stations in the capital Lima due to a lack of electoral material, which did not arrive on time due to logistical problems of the company in charge of its distribution, which meant that thirteen schools had to open on Monday. This fueled the unsubstantiated fraud allegations made by far-right candidate Rafael López Aliaga (Popular Renewal), while electoral observation missions determined that these problems did not affect the outcome of the process, which they described as credible and transparent. So far, only Fujimori has secured a presence in the second round to be held on June 7, whose rival will be defined in a very narrow margin between the leftist Roberto Sánchez (Juntos por el Perú) and the ultra-conservative López Aliaga.