Elections in Peru: with 99% of the votes counted, Keiko leads the race against Sánchez

Roberto Sánchez and Keiko Fujimori
REUTERS/Alessandro Cinque and REUTERS/Stifs Paucca
Candidates Roberto Sánchez, from Together for Peru, and Keiko Fujimori, from Força Popular, compete vote by vote in the presidential election in Peru in the second round. The vote was on Sunday (7), and the counting is ongoing. On Monday night (15), the count exceeded 99% of the polls.
The right-wing candidate is slightly ahead of the left-wing candidate. According to data from the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE), 98.011% of the ballot boxes were counted.
At midnight this Tuesday (16), the candidates have a difference of just over 9 thousand votes:
Keiko Fujimori: 50.08%
Roberto Sánchez: 49.91%
See the timeline of the counting below:
Timeline of the electoral count in Peru.
Arte/g1
Around 10pm on voting Sunday, the The Peruvian electoral body released the first official data from the count: Keiko Fujimori came out on top, five percentage points ahead of Roberto Sánchez.
The difference between the two decreased as the investigation progressed. At around 7am on Monday (8), Keiko had less than a point advantage over Sánchez.
At 1:07 pm on Monday, local time, the Juntos pelo Peru candidate overtook Keiko. Then, on Wednesday night (10) Keiko regained the advantage -- of less than one point.
Current situation of the count
With 98.55% of the country's ballot boxes counted, official data from the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) indicate that Keiko has 50.051% of the valid votes against 49.949% for Sanchez.
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Considering the ballot boxes in which Peruvians voted abroad, the total count is at 98.3% with 50.012% for Keiko and 49.988% for Sánchez.
Abroad, 95.124% of the ballots were counted. Keiko has 63.387% against Sánchez's 36.613%.
Within the country, in the regions of Ayacucho, Cusco, Loreto, Madre Dios and Ucayali there are still votes to be counted. In the others, the count has been completed, although the count is not 100%, because part of the ballots will be sent to the Electoral Court.
In total, considering the votes cast in Peru and abroad, 0.523%% of the votes are still pending counting.
The electoral authority reported that the release of the final result could take days. Voting in Peru is done with paper ballots. The country has 27.33 million voters eligible to vote.
Check out the performance of the candidates in each Peruvian region on the map this Friday (12):
Map shows the vote for Roberto Sánchez and Keiko Fujimori in each region of Peru.
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Candidates' profile
Keiko Fujimori is running for the Popular Force party, a party he founded in 2008 to lead the Fujimorist movement. Daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, the candidate is running for president for the fourth time, having been defeated in the second round in the 2011, 2016 and 2021 elections.
In the first round vote in 2026, Keiko obtained 17.2% of the valid votes.
Deputy Roberto Sánchez, from Together for Peru, reached the second round after obtaining 12% of the votes in the first round.
Sánchez's support base is mostly identified in rural areas and areas far from urban regions.
History and electoral context
The 2026 elections registered a record 35 presidential candidates in the first round. The process takes place in a scenario in which Peru has registered 9 presidents in 10 years, with constitutional mandates lasting five years.
Survey data indicates that 90% of Peruvians express little or no confidence in the government and the National Congress.
In addition, only 10% of Peruvians claim to be satisfied with democracy in the country, a situation that researchers classify as "chronic distrust".

Source: G1