Peru is experiencing the closest presidential election in history. Fujimori leads Sánchez by only 0.1% of the vote

The result of the second round of the presidential election in Peru, in which conservative politician Keiko Fujimori and her left-wing opponent Roberto Sánchez met, is one of the closest in Latin American countries in recent decades. This follows from an analysis published by the AFP agency on Monday.

• The second round of presidential elections in Peru brought an extremely close fight.
• After counting 98.5 percent of the votes, Fujimori leads by 18,478 votes.
• The result is one of the closest Latin American elections since at least 1990.
• Keiko Fujimori is running for the fourth time, previously she lost twice by a margin of tenths of a percent.
• The official name of the new Peruvian president will not be known until the end of the month.

With more than 98.5 percent of the votes counted, Fujimori leads Sánchez by 18,478 votes, which is just 0.1 percent.

Historical tightness of results

AFP, which analyzed nearly 150 elections in 18 states, said such a result would be the closest in a Latin American election since at least 1990, after several countries in the region transitioned to democracy.

Fujimori is running for president for the fourth time. Victory narrowly eluded her every time before. In 2016, she was 41,000 votes away from office, or 0.24 percent, and five years later she lost by 0.26 percent.

Hope for the end result

The only election in Latin America with a closer result was in El Salvador in 2014, where leftist and former rebel commander Salvador Sánchez Cerén won by 7,400 votes. There was also an extremely close vote in Costa Rica in 2006, when Nobel Peace Prize laureate Óscar Arias won by 18,200 votes. However, the population of Peru is three times that of both mentioned countries combined.

The head of Peru’s electoral commission, Bernardo Pachas, said that the name of the new Peruvian president will be officially known at the end of the month.