Left-wing congressman Roberto Sanchez on Monday held a narrow lead over conservative Keiko Fujimori in Peru’s presidential race as official vote counting entered its second day, and the final result could be known for several weeks.
After about 94.9% of the votes were counted, Sanchez rose to 50.10%, while Fujimori fell to 49.90%.
Most voters who voted in Sunday’s election said they were concerned about crime and the state of the economy, while a shift to the right was widely expected given the trend in elections in other Latin American countries.
Fujimori has been leading in preliminary results and exit polls, but Sanchez has been gaining ground since Sunday night as ballots from Peru’s rural regions come in. But Fujimori is expected to benefit from diaspora votes as they come in.
Sanchez, a minister in former President Pedro Castillo’s government, sought to emulate Castillo’s rural image, even wearing the former leader’s wide-brimmed cowboy hat during the campaign.
In addition to constitutional reform, Sanchez proposed pardoning Castillo, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence after trying to dissolve Congress in 2022.
He also announced the introduction of a tax on unexpected income and wealth tax, as well as the reform of mining concessions.
The proposals have attracted support from Peru’s vast rural regions, including the country’s increasingly powerful informal mining sector, but have unsettled investors.
Peru is the world’s third largest producer of copper and one of the main producers of gold, silver and zinc.
Fujimori, who is in the second round of the presidential election for the fourth time, called for patience as she watched her early advantage melt away.
– We will wait until the last (vote), and I hope that all Peruvians will do the same, Fujimori said on Monday in front of her house in Lima.
Speaking to reporters in Congress, Sanchez said that he is “confident and optimistic, but we will wait for 100% of the votes. What follows is work for the country because it has to put an end to Peruvian political instability.”
The President of Peru is also the head of state and government.
Peru’s electoral commission ONPE said a full vote count was expected to be completed by July.
Fujimori previously distanced herself from her father, Alberto Fujimori, an authoritarian former Peruvian president who took a crack at crime but was later jailed for human rights abuses. But considering that the main concern of the voters in this election is precisely crime, Fujimori once again began to rely on his legacy.
The anti-Fujimori coalition that took victory away from her every time seemed to have weakened in recent years, said Jo-Marie Burt, a professor of Latin American studies at Princeton University. But it seems that she may have united enough to prevent her victory this fourth time, Burt explained.
The winner of the election will be the ninth president of Peru in the last ten years, of which Congress has dismissed three presidents in five years.
With such a close race and candidates both tied to former presidents with political baggage, Burt estimates that the country’s political fragmentation is likely to continue.
In any case, Peru is waiting for another five years of turbulence, political conflicts and instability, he concludes.
(Vijesti.ba)
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