Fujimori Leads Peru Runoff With 50.12% Vote

Peru’s right-wing presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori is building an unassailable lead in Tuesday’s vote counting for the runoff election, official figures show. With 99.86 percent of ballots tallied, Fujimori holds 50.12 percent of votes, a margin over her leftist rival Roberto Sanchez of just over 43,000 votes, according to data published online by the National Office of Electoral Processes.

Election officials need to process 131 tally sheets representing around 39,000 votes before declaring a winner, which is insufficient for Sanchez to catch up. The electoral authority doesn’t plan to declare a winner until mid-July, Reuters reports, adding that a Fujimori victory would extend Latin America’s move to the right.

In Colombia, populist Abelardo de la Espriella narrowly won a polarizing presidential runoff Sunday. Voters concerned about crime have been drawn to hardline candidates. Sanchez said he wouldn’t recognize a government headed by Fujimori, claiming a “serious violation of the electoral process” and alleging administrative irregularities in handling votes from overseas.

The overseas vote largely favored Fujimori, who was propelled by massive support from voters in the United States and Japan. Her party said it would wait for the count to be completed before declaring victory. The winner will take office July 28 for a five-year term. The June 7 runoff pitted Fujimori against Sanchez, the political heir of former president Pedro Castillo. Many voters had hoped the election would draw a line under years of political chaos that has seen a string of presidents jailed, deposed and impeached. But the tight result shows South America remains deeply divided between the populous coast and the more rural, Indigenous south.