The candidate from Juntos por el Perú (left), Roberto Sánchez, has placed himself ahead in the second round of the presidential elections in Peru, with 50.076% of the votes, ahead of the 49.924% obtained by the candidate from the far-right Fuerza Popular, Keiko Fujimori, with 94.67% of the ballots counted.
According to official figures released by the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE), Sánchez has accumulated 8,848,799 ballots, while Fujimori has registered 8,821,929 votes.
In the early stages of the count, partial data gave Fujimori a slight advantage over Sánchez, although the difference was progressively reduced until the left-wing representative ended up positioning himself above the daughter of former president and dictator Alberto Fujimori.
Given this scenario, Fujimori has asked to remain calm during the scrutiny and has stressed that the task now falls to her legal representatives, responsible for "fighting" for each ballot. She has also reiterated her call to abide by the final results, regardless of who emerges as the winner.
"What is required is patience and a lot of serenity. I also call on the poll watchers, no longer the poll watchers at the table, but the legal poll watchers, of whom we have more than 100 throughout Peru, as they will have to fight, analyze each of these ballots and well, we will have to wait and respect the results whatever the winner may be," she stated, as reported by the newspaper 'La República'.
Later, she admitted the "division" existing in the country between the two alternatives that have reached the runoff and, therefore, defended the need to "build bridges." In this regard, she assured that Fuerza Popular remains willing to dialogue with other political forces.
For his part, Sánchez has shown his recognition for the support received. "I thank all the leaders of the popular movement, social movement, who put us in the first round, the open and social, cultural, academic leaders and many citizens who have said critical vote, oversight vote and who resolved, I believe with their vocation, to achieve this eventual triumph in standards of peace, justice and reconciliation," he stated in declarations collected by Exitosa radio.
"We appreciate that support. We are confident and optimistic, but as appropriate, the 100% count is yet to be revealed. We call on the poll watchers to do their job, to our technical team, but the real and concrete thing is that we have to wait for the issuance of the results at 100%," he pointed out.
The candidate also explained that he has visited former president Pedro Castillo, imprisoned after being removed from office, and has called for "recovering standards of democracy and calling for social peace, for the fight against the number one enemy that Peru has, which is corruption, poverty."
From Sánchez's team, Gustavo Guerra García, a member of the technical campaign team of Juntos por el Perú, has valued the functioning of the ONPE during this second round. He highlighted that more than 95% of the polling stations delivered conforming minutes and that the percentage of challenges was between 1 and 2%. "This time the ONPE has been up to the task. We have not had the problems of the last time," he stated, alluding to the first electoral round.
More than 27 million Peruvian citizens, including 1.2 million residents abroad, were called to vote this Sunday in one of the tightest presidential contests in recent years.
In his fourth attempt to reach the Head of State, Fujimori has won in the main urban centers, such as Lima, the capital, and Cuzco, while Sánchez has garnered majority support in areas that have historically shown their discontent with the country's strong centralism.
Sánchez achieves his best results in the center, south, and east of the territory, where rural, jungle, and mountain areas predominate, while Fujimori obtains his highest percentages in the coastal strip.