Sánchez says he will not recognize results of the 2nd round of presidential elections

LIMA, June 23 (Reuters) – Peru’s left-wing presidential candidate, Roberto Sánchez, said on Tuesday that he should not recognize the results of the second round of the country’s presidential elections, alleging fraud, while his conservative rival, Keiko Fujimori, maintains a narrow lead as the votes are tallied.

The statement raises the possibility of a prolonged political crisis in Peru, as the country awaits the final outcome of one of the fiercest presidential contests in its history.

In a ⁠press conference, ⁠Sánchez stated that “fraud is taking place” in a process that, ⁠according to him, would be favoring Fujimori. Electoral authorities have been analyzing contested votes from the June 7 second round for weeks, with Fujimori leading 50.11% against 49.89%.

“We believe that there was vote manipulation,” said Sánchez, accusing the Peruvian electoral authority Onpe and Fujimori’s campaign of irregularities in votes cast abroad, which strongly favored Fujimori.

“We will not recognize Fujimori’s government,” said Sánchez. He urged his supporters to take to the streets and called for new marches for Saturday.

Onpe, Peru’s National Electoral Jury (JNE) and Fujimori’s campaign 🏽did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sánchez’s party, “Together for Peru”, won the second largest number of seats in Congress, securing 32 of the 130 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 14 of the 60 seats in the Senate.

Fujimori’s party will have the largest bloc in Congress, with 22 seats in the Senate and 41 in the Chamber of Deputies. Fujimori, daughter of the late former president Alberto Fujimori, is running for president for the fourth time.

Sánchez led the race at the beginning, as votes from rural areas were counted, but Fujimori closed the gap when votes from abroad began to be counted.

With such a close race, both candidates ⁠refrained from declaring victory or admitting defeat until 100% of the votes are counted. After weeks of analyzing contested votes, 99.72% of the total votes had already been counted by the early hours of this Tuesday.