Fujimori Leads Peru Presidential Runoff by 43,000 Votes

Peru's right-wing presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori held 50.12 percent of the vote with 99.86 percent of ballots tallied, a margin of just over 43,000 votes over leftist rival Roberto Sanchez. Election officials still must process 131 tally sheets representing about 39,000 votes. That number is too small for Sanchez to overtake the lead.

The National Office of Electoral Processes will not declare a winner until mid-July. Fujimori's party said it will wait for the count to finish before claiming victory. The winner is scheduled to take office on July 28 for a five-year term. The June 7 runoff matched the daughter of late former president Alberto Fujimori against Sanchez, the political successor to former president Pedro Castillo.

Sanchez stated he would not recognize a government led by Fujimori and alleged administrative irregularities in the handling of roughly 300,000 overseas ballots. Those ballots largely favored Fujimori, driven by support from voters in the United States and Japan.

Many voters had hoped the election would end years of political instability marked by multiple presidents jailed, deposed, or impeached. The narrow margin instead underscores ongoing divisions between the populous coast and the more rural, Indigenous south.