Lima.- Right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori moved to within just 6,702 votes of leftist Roberto Sánchez as 97.981% of the votes from last Sunday’s presidential elections in Peru have been counted and the tallying of the final records arriving from abroad continues.
Official figures from the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) give Sánchez 50.019% of the votes, followed by 49.981% for Fujimori.
The difference of just 0.038 percentage points is due to the fact that the leftist has so far garnered 9,020,803 votes, while the right-winger has reached 9,014,101.
With 98.032% of the records issued in the country and 85.961% from abroad already counted, the last batch of voting records from Argentina arrived in Lima this Wednesday night.
The Peruvian Foreign Ministry indicated that, with this arrival, “the withdrawal of the overseas vote is successfully concluded,” carried out in 73 countries, and specified that the pending records came from Buenos Aires.
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In total, 254 records remain to be counted, of which 233 are from abroad, each of which contains a maximum of 300 votes.
Statistics experts have reiterated that this count could tip the scales in favor of Fujimori, who has received the highest number of votes from Peruvians abroad, with 63.551% so far, compared to 36.449% for Sánchez.
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However, it is also noted that there are 1,619 records pending review by the electoral jury due to being challenged or containing some material error, so the final result of the elections will only be known once this process is concluded, which may still take several days.
Amidst this scenario, the National Jury of Elections (JNE) called for calm from both the citizenry and the country’s political actors and asked them to await the end of the vote count.
He added that the Special Electoral Juries (JEE) are already processing the observed records and other procedures provided for by electoral justice, including those related to vote recounts when applicable by law.
The organization reaffirmed, in that sense, its “commitment to legality, transparency, and the unrestricted respect for the popular will expressed at the polls“.
This Wednesday, Sánchez invoked with “energy” that this will be respected, after criticizing that the head of a polling firm pointed to Fujimori as the probable winner.
That company’s projection, published on Sunday, showed a statistical tie with Sánchez slightly ahead.
The candidate for the Juntos por el Perú party announced that he requested a meeting with the electoral bodies “because of all these strange things that are happening.”
Fujimori stated, for her part, that the records with the vote from abroad give her “a lot of encouragement,” but she also reiterated that she maintains a “very cautious” position.
“We are going to wait for the official figures, but without a doubt, when the count increases, especially the tally sheets coming from abroad, it gives us a lot of encouragement,” he maintained, before also reiterating that “the popular will” must be respected.
The winner of these elections will govern Peru during the 2026-2031 period, following a stage of political instability that led the country to have eight presidents in a decade, due to a succession of presidential removals and resignations promoted from Parliament.
