LIMA, Peru — With 93% of ballots counted from Sunday’s presidential first round, Keiko Fujimori led a crowded 35-candidate field Thursday with 17.06% of the vote, while a margin of fewer than 8,000 votes left the second runoff berth unresolved between a nationalist congressman and an ultraconservative former mayor, according to official results.
Roberto Sánchez, a congressman and former minister under imprisoned ex-President Pedro Castillo, held second place with 11.97%. Rafael López Aliaga, former mayor of Lima, trailed in third with 11.91%. Electoral authorities said the final determination could take weeks.
The unresolved count will decide which candidate faces Fujimori in a June 7 runoff for Peru’s presidency — a contest that will install the country’s ninth head of state in ten years and set sharply divergent courses on economic policy, security, and the role of the state.
The count and what remains
Approximately 1,600 tally sheets from remote villages and abroad remained pending, according to the Associated Press. Another roughly 5,000 sheets had been challenged, sending them to electoral courts for review.
“In Peru, a percentage of tally sheets are always ‘challenged’ due to potential mathematical errors,” said Álvaro Henzler, president of Transparencia, a democracy-watchdog group that deployed 4,000 observers. “When this occurs, they are sent to 60 special electoral boards for review.”
Henzler said the narrow gap between the second and third-place candidates makes the process consequential in a way past elections were not. “In this case, since the race is so tight, the contested tally sheets could end up altering the standings; that is why it is taking longer,” he said.
In 2021, Peru’s electoral tribunal proclaimed first-round results 37 days after the April 11 vote — and in that instance the second-place gap exceeded 238,000 votes from the start, leaving little room for the count to shift the outcome.
Contrasting platforms
The two candidates contesting the second runoff slot offer competing visions for Peru.
Sánchez, frequently seen in the wide-brimmed peasant hat that has become his trademark, has promised major economic changes: a dramatic expansion of government spending, an extensive reform of the tax system, and partial nationalization of Peru’s natural resources.
López Aliaga, who served as mayor of Lima, focuses on a hardline security agenda. He has proposed building prisons in the country’s Amazon region, allowing judges to conceal their identities, and expelling foreigners living illegally in Peru.
Fujimori, the conservative daughter of disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori, is in her fourth bid for the presidency. She has promised to crack down on crime but has also defended laws that experts say make it difficult to prosecute criminals — including measures her party backed that eliminated preliminary detention in certain cases and raised the threshold for seizing criminal assets.
Peru’s revolving leadership
The winner will replace José María Balcázar, who was elected interim president in February 2026. Balcázar himself replaced a predecessor who was ousted over corruption allegations just four months into his term.
Peru’s next president will be the country’s ninth in a decade.