By Marco Aquino and Alexander Villegas
LIMA, June 29 (Reuters) – Keiko Fujimori leads the final count in Peru’s presidential runoff after the country’s ONPE electoral authority finished tallying 100% of the vote on Monday after weeks of reviewing contested ballots.
The final tally shows the conservative Fujimori with a lead of 50.135%, or 9,223,396 votes, to leftist Roberto Sanchez’s 49.865%, or 9,173,755 votes.
Fujimori welcomed the conclusion of the drawn-out vote count, and in a post on social media said she would “await the national electoral jury’s announcement with great humility, prudence, and responsibility.”
“We are getting closer and closer to embarking on a path of order and hope for all Peruvians,” Fujimori said on X.
Fujimori, the daughter of late former President Alberto Fujimori who served a 16-year prison sentence for human rights abuses, had already achieved an unbeatable lead in the race last week after authorities spent weeks reviewing contested ballots from the June 7 runoff.
Sanchez’s rhetoric disputing the results has also grown, with the leftist senator saying he will not recognize a Fujimori government and making accusations, without providing evidence, of electoral fraud in favor of Fujimori.
Sanchez has led marches in Lima to “defend the vote” and has called on his followers to hold more protests in the coming days, which could prolong the country’s political crisis that’s led to a revolving door of presidents over the last decade. Fujimori, who is set to assume power on July 28, will be the country’s 10th president since 2016.
Peru’s National Electoral Jury (JNE) is scheduled to officially announce a winner on July 3 and Sanchez has said he will file a legal appeal in the coming days to prevent the official proclamation.
Fujimori, 51, said last week that she aims to unite a country “divided in two” and pledged to reduce crime and address the deep inequality prevalent throughout the Andean nation.
Fujimori’s victory comes after three failed attempts at the presidency, cementing Latin America’s rightward shift and establishing the return of one of Peru’s most dominant and polarizing political dynasties of the last three decades.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino and Alexander Villegas; Editing by Kylie Madry and Edward Tobin)
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