Counting continues in Peru election, runoff likely

Lucinda Elliott and Marco Aquino |

Long lines persisted outside polling stations in parts of Peru as voters returned to cast ballots.
Long lines persisted outside polling stations in parts of Peru as voters returned to cast ballots.

Peru’s presidential race remains wide open, with around half the ballots still uncounted after ‌a second day of extended voting, leaving conservative Keiko Fujimori in the lead but no clear challenger for a likely June runoff.

A tight race for Fujimori’s second-place challenger started to take shape on Monday, with right-wing former ‌Lima Mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, centre-left candidate Jorge Nieto, and outsider Ricardo Belmont clustered within a narrow band. Each was polling between 10 to 14 per cent, with just under 60 per cent of ballots counted.

Long lines persisted outside polling stations in parts of Lima during the day as voters returned to cast ballots for president and a new bicameral Congress after widespread delays hampered Sunday’s general election. 

Peru's Fujimori
Conservative Keiko Fujimori is leading in the Peru election, but a runoff in June looks likely. (EPA PHOTO)

With none of the leading candidates anywhere near the 50 per cent required to win outright, a June 7 runoff appeared highly likely, prolonging political uncertainty in the world’s third-largest copper producer amid rising crime levels and intensifying geopolitical competition between the United States and China. 

Results ‌published by electoral authority ONPE ‌showed former congresswoman Fujimori – the daughter ⁠of former president Alberto Fujimori, who was imprisoned for human rights abuses – leading with about 17 per cent of the vote. Lopez Aliaga ​and Nieto were trailing close behind, with nearly 14 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively. 

Belmont had secured just below 10 per cent, with 58 per cent of the votes counted. Authorities extended voting hours for a second day until 6pm local time on Monday for more than 50,000 people who were unable to cast ballots on Sunday, after logistical failures that delayed the opening of some voting stations in the capital. 

Electoral authority ONPE said the problems stemmed from a failure to deliver voting materials on time.

Peru Election
Ballots from Lima, which typically arrive first, account for about one-third of the electorate. (AP PHOTO)

The electoral ‌authority had expected to have 60 per cent of results by midnight on Sunday, a level that has yet to be reached, leaving open the possibility of a late surge, or technical tie for ​second place as votes from the interior of the country are counted.

Ballots from Lima, which typically arrive first, account for about one-third of the electorate, where both Fujimori and Lopez Aliaga command strong bases of support.

Fujimori said there was still “a lot of ground to cover” and a great deal of disillusionment as the country approaches a second round, addressing journalists from her car on Monday en route to meet her daughters.

Lopez Aliaga, the face of the Popular Renewal party, said he would not allow a “brutal fraud,” arguing that most of the polling stations that failed to operate were in Lima, where his support has traditionally been strongest.

Reuters