Leftist Sanchez takes slim lead over Fujimori in Peru’s presidential run-off election

Leftist Congressman Roberto Sanchez has edged ahead of his conservative opponent Keiko Fujimori in Peru’s presidential run-off, reversing the narrow lead she held earlier in the day.

Left-wing presidential candidate Roberto Sanchez reacts following early results in the run-off against conservative candidate Keiko Fujimori, in Lima, Peru, on June 7. (Stifs Paucca/ Reuters)

With nearly 95 percent of the votes tallied on Monday, Sanchez’s vote rose to 50.10 percent, while Fujimori’s dropped to 49.90 percent.

With only a few thousand votes separating the candidates, the tight race illustrates the deep political polarisation gripping the South American country.

Fujimori, a four-time candidate and daughter of former hardline President Alberto Fujimori, ⁠had led by less than a percentage point earlier in the day. The count narrowed as the final ballots were tallied in rural areas, where Sanchez has dominated throughout Peru’s tense election season.

Both of the rivals are vying to become the South American country’s ninth leader in a decade, following a series of forced resignations and impeachments.

Sanchez, speaking to reporters at the Congress, said he was “confident and optimistic, but we’ll ⁠wait for 100 percent of the vote”.

Fujimori, watching her early lead dwindle, called for patience.

“We’re going to wait until the last [vote], and that’s what I hope all Peruvians do,” she said outside her home in Lima on Monday.

Votes at several international polling stations, which are expected to favour Fujimori, have yet to be counted.

Divergent visions
Fujimori, 51, has pitched her candidacy in the tough-on-crime mould of her father, pledging to “defeat terrorism” and impose a 60-day state of emergency.

The elder Fujimori – who installed Keiko as his first lady in the 1990s amid a divorce from his wife – was accused of forced sterilisation of Indigenous people and extrajudicial killings carried out by “death squads”.

Fujimori has defended her family’s legacy and claimed that her opponent would drive Peru into a failed socialist state and “regression”.

But in the final stretch of the race, 57-year-old Sanchez has gained more ground.

A former psychologist and trade minister under leftist President Pedro Castillo, Sanchez moderated his campaign approach in recent weeks while seeking out rural voters and promising anti-poverty measures, police reform and a new constitution built through “citizen participation”.

He has also pledged to pardon Castillo, who is serving a prison sentence following a failed attempt to dissolve Peru’s Congress in 2022.
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Credit: Al Jazeera