Leftist Congressman Roberto Sanchez has edged ahead of his conservative opponent Keiko Fujimori in Peru’s presidential run-off, reversing the narrow lead she held earlier in the day.
With nearly 95 percent of the votes tallied on Monday, Sanchez’s vote rose to 50.10 percent, while Fujimori’s dropped to 49.90 percent.
With only a few thousand votes separating the candidates, the tight race illustrates the deep political polarisation gripping the South American country.
Fujimori, a four-time candidate and daughter of former hardline President Alberto Fujimori, had led by less than a percentage point earlier in the day. The count narrowed as the final ballots were tallied in rural areas, where Sanchez has dominated throughout Peru’s tense election season.
Both of the rivals are vying to become the South American country’s ninth leader in a decade, following a series of forced resignations and impeachments.
Sanchez, speaking to reporters at the Congress, said he was “confident and optimistic, but we’ll wait for 100 percent of the vote”.
Fujimori, watching her early lead dwindle, called for patience.
“We’re going to wait until the last [vote], and that’s what I hope all Peruvians do,” she said outside her home in Lima on Monday.
Votes at several international polling stations, which are expected to favour Fujimori, have yet to be counted.
Divergent visions
Fujimori, 51, has pitched her candidacy in the tough-on-crime mould of her father, pledging to “defeat terrorism” and impose a 60-day state of emergency.
The elder Fujimori – who installed Keiko as his first lady in the 1990s amid a divorce from his wife – was accused of forced sterilisation of Indigenous people and extrajudicial killings carried out by “death squads”.
Fujimori has defended her family’s legacy and claimed that her opponent would drive Peru into a failed socialist state and “regression”.
But in the final stretch of the race, 57-year-old Sanchez has gained more ground.
A former psychologist and trade minister under leftist President Pedro Castillo, Sanchez moderated his campaign approach in recent weeks while seeking out rural voters and promising anti-poverty measures, police reform and a new constitution built through “citizen participation”.
He has also pledged to pardon Castillo, who is serving a prison sentence following a failed attempt to dissolve Peru’s Congress in 2022.
If he wins, Sanchez would have presidential immunity from charges related to past financial irregularities in his party, though he would still face possible removal attempts from the country’s right-wing legislature.
The current result echoes the 2021 run-off, when Fujimori and Castillo finished with roughly 50.1 percent to 49.9 percent of the vote, respectively. Calling the race dragged on for weeks amid nullity challenges.
“The result reflects the country’s divisions,” Paulo Vilca, a political analyst at the Peruvian Studies Institute, told the AFP news agency. “Whoever wins will have half the country against them.”
Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez, reporting from Lima, said many Peruvians had gone to the polls hoping the winner could bring back political stability.
“Five years ago, Keiko Fujimori lost to former president Pedro Castillo by only 44,000 votes. This race again seems to divide the country, with tensions and distrust running high among voters,” she said.
“Preliminary results show a race still locked in a tight race that will only be called when every single vote is counted,” she added.
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