Left-wing deputy Roberto Sánchez continues with a narrow lead over conservative Keiko Fujimori in the dispute for the Presidency of Peru this Tuesday (9), at a time when the official vote count is still progressing.
With approximately 95.7% of votes processed, Sánchez recorded 50.072%, against 49.928% for Fujimori. The vote took place on Sunday (7), in a scenario of conservative inclination that has characterized the Latin American region in recent years.
Fujimori appeared in the lead in the first results and in exit polls, but Sánchez took the lead on Monday (8), as polls from rural areas of the country were incorporated into the totals.
“We are confident and optimistic. But, as is appropriate, the complete count is still underway,” declared Sánchez on Monday, when speaking to journalists in Congress shortly before the reversal in the numbers. “Whatever comes next is for the good of the country, because the political instability in Peru needs to end.”
On the same day, earlier, in front of her residence in Lima, Fujimori said she was calm and asked her supporters to calm down.
“I think we have to wait until the end. As I said yesterday, every vote will be very important, so I think the appropriate thing at this point is to be patient,” she said.
Several polling stations abroad remain without full count, and the expectation is that they will benefit the conservative candidate.
Sánchez defended a profound change in the Peruvian economic model, which resisted periods of political crisis experienced by the country.
The ONPE (National Office of Electoral Processes), responsible for organizing the election in Peru, indicated that the final tabulation should only end in July.
The political turmoil in Peru has generated a sequence of heads of state. Whoever wins will be the country’s ninth president in the last decade. Congress has removed three representatives in the last five years.
