With 37% of ballots counted, Keiko Fujimori leads Peru’s presidential race and is set to advance to runoff

As expected, the question of who will be Peru’s ninth president in a decade remains unresolved. And not just because of the close results of the first round of voting held this Sunday, but also because the elections will continue on Monday, April 13. In an unprecedented move, the National Elections Board (JNE) extended the voting period due to problems setting up more than 200 polling stations in Lima and in two overseas districts. Thus, the 63,300 Peruvians who were unable to vote this Sunday will be able to do so first thing Monday morning.

Election authorities have urged that no early vote count or other types of polls be released so as not to influence voters. The order, however, came after exit polls by the polling firms Ipsos and Datum had already placed Keiko Fujimori from Fuerza Popular in first place with 16.5% of the vote. That number later rose to 17.17% with 37% of votes counted, Reuters reported citing the electoral authority National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE).

The question is who will be her opponent in the runoff on June 7. The latest vote count showed the right-wing candidate Rafael López Aliaga of Renovación Popular in second place with 16.97% of the vote. Other candidates that could wrest second spot from Aliaga include Roberto Sánchez (Juntos por el Perú), Ricardo Belmont (Cívico Obras), Rafael López Aliaga (Renovación Popular) and Jorge Nieto (Buen Gobierno), out of a total of 35 candidates to the presidency.

This election is a decisive one, because in addition to electing a new head of state, voters have also chosen the new composition of parliament, which will once again have two chambers after 34 years. A total of 130 congressmembers and 60 senators have been elected, as well as 15 representatives to the Andean Parliament, including both regular members and alternates.

Peru has suffered a chronic cycle of instability since 2016. During that time, no president has completed their term, and those who have assumed the highest executive office have been vice presidents with little political clout or controversial speakers of Parliament. Although the Andean country has a presidential system, it is widely considered that Congress is the de facto governing body. The #PorEstosNo movement, which originated on the X platform, urged voters to punish the 10 political parties currently represented in Congress.

A day of disruptions

The day began with disruptions in Lima, the capital, where several citizens reported that their polling stations had not yet been set up. The ONPE reported that 85 locations were affected due to problems with the transportation of materials. “13% of polling stations not set up in Lima represents almost 850,000 citizens. The last election was decided by a difference of 50,000 votes,” criticized the candidate Jorge Nieto.

In the days leading up to the election, Rafael López Aliaga attacked the ONPE without evidence, alleging that “a fraud was underway.” The former mayor of Lima maintained his lead in the polls for almost the entire campaign until his support began to wane less than a month ago. The investigative news site Convoca has revealed that the company responsible for the delay in delivering election materials was a supplier for the Municipality of Lima during López Aliaga’s administration. Later that afternoon, ONPE reported that 211 polling stations had not been set up, preventing 63,300 people from voting and compromising the transparency of the process.

“Logistical failures cannot, under any circumstances, affect citizens’ right to vote,” said Fujimori, the only candidate who appears to have secured her place in the runoff. Earlier in the morning, the leader of Fuerza Popular visited her parents’ graves in Huachipa, east of Lima: Alberto Fujimori, the autocrat who ruled Peru in the 1990s, and Susana Higuchi, the former first lady who alleged she was tortured on her husband’s orders.

This would be the fourth time Keiko Fujimori advances to the runoff of the presidential election. She lost each time by a narrow margin: in 2011 to Ollanta Humala, in 2016 to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, and in 2021 to Pedro Castillo. On the last two occasions, she alleged electoral fraud and destabilized the incoming government. “My father’s last wish was for me to run for office,” she declared after laying flowers at the gravestones and posing with the patriarch’s statue. She was accompanied by her daughters, Kyara and Kaori, and her sister, Sachi. This is her first attempt without the presence of the Fujimori leader, who died in 2014, a free man after a controversial pardon.

Keiko Fujimori’s opponent remains to be seen. One of the potential contenders is Roberto Sánchez, the political heir of Pedro Castillo. The man who concluded his campaign riding a horse in a public square in Lima enjoys support from rural Peru. Analysts have questioned whether he is truly an outsider, given his experience as a congressman in the last five years.

Then there is Ricardo Belmont, the oldest candidate in the race at 80 years old. He is a familiar face in politics and the media. He was mayor of Lima, bursting onto the scene in the late 1980s as an outsider. He was a radio and television host at the time and has been accused of fraud by 40,000 Peruvians who contributed to his channel, RBC. Despite this, Belmont surged in the polls in the final stretch, thanks to his reach on Facebook, the platform where Peruvians most often seek information on electoral matters, and the participation of his youngest daughter, Kristen, a twenty-something with a large following who campaigned for him on TikTok.

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