Keiko Fujimori Holds Slim Lead as Peru Vote Nears Completion

Overview

• Keiko Fujimori led by a razor-thin margin as counting reached its final stage, with official tallies on Tuesday, June 16 showing roughly 50.05% to 49.95% and a gap measured in the tens of thousands of votes.
• Peru’s electoral body, ONPE, has sent a number of contested paper ballots for review and warned that official certification could take days or weeks while those cases are resolved.
• Overseas ballots have strongly favored Fujimori and proved decisive in recent swings; a request by Roberto Sánchez to invalidate about 400,000 diaspora votes was rejected by electoral authorities.
• International observers from the OAS and the EU said voting proceeded within normal parameters and urged patience for the final count, even as Sánchez’s party has called protests and signaled it may not accept results it views as unfair.
• The outcome will shape Peru’s fragile political stability and markets, given Keiko’s link to her father Alberto Fujimori’s polarizing legacy and the country’s recent history of rapid presidential turnover.