By Carlos Noreiga on June 8, 2026 from Lima
Roberto Sanchez nears victory. foto: Ernesto Benavides, AFP
With votes from rural areas and remote communities, Roberto Sánchez has been widening his lead with 95% of the votes counted. However, the factor of votes cast by Peruvians abroad means this trend cannot yet be considered irreversible.
Peru remains shrouded in uncertainty. One day after the presidential runoff, a winner has not been determined. A razor-thin margin between leftist Roberto Sánchez and far-right candidate Keiko Fujimori makes it impossible to declare a winner with only five percent of the votes remaining to be counted. But the progressive candidate appears to be closer to victory. At the time of this writing, with 94.95 percent of the votes officially counted,Sánchez is ahead with 50.1 percent and Keiko Fujimori has 49.9 percent, a difference of just over 36,000 votes, with 18.9 million counted.
The importance of the overseas vote
With votes from rural areas and the most remote regions—the last in the country to be counted, where Sánchez is winning by a wide margin—the progressive candidate has been widening his lead with each update. With every new tally, there is a slight increase in the percentage of votes counted, ever since he took the lead on Monday afternoon when the count was near 94 percent. But the factor of votes cast by Peruvians abroad—of which only 6.33 percent have been counted—where the right typically wins, does not allow us to conclude that the trend in Sánchez’s favor is irreversible. Challenges to vote tallies—so far 1.6 percent of the total, or about 300,000 votes—which will have to be reviewed by electoral juries, could delay the declaration of a winner by several days, or even weeks. Judicial authorities have set July 15 as the deadline for declaring a winner. The presidential transition takes place on July 28.
Fujimorism is clinging to the overseas vote to fuel its hopes of overturning the result. Outside Peru, there are about one million registered voters out of more than 27 million eligible voters, but absenteeism among these voters is typically high; in the first round, 400,000 voted. This vote is the only option left for the far right to win, because the trend toward a Sánchez victory in the country has solidified, albeit by a narrow margin. Fujimorists acknowledge this. Fujimori wins in Lima and the major coastal cities, while Sánchez wins in the rest of the country, with an overwhelming lead in the Andean and rural areas. A polarization that divides the country in two, mirroring exactly what happened in the 2021 elections, in which Pedro Castillo narrowly defeated Keiko Fujimori.
Between Sunday and Monday, the two candidates have been taking turns in first place. A shifting situation that fuels uncertainty. When the polls closed on Sunday afternoon, two exit polls placed Fujimori in first place by a narrow margin. Four hours later, as dozens of Fujimori supporters celebrated outside Keiko Fujimori’s home, the result flipped with an exit poll placing Sánchez in first place with 50.3 percent. A second quick count confirmed her lead. But in the first release of the official count, the Fujimori camp’s leader appeared ahead. She remained in the lead in the official count until Monday afternoon, when Sánchez, with rural votes, caught up to her and passed her. The progressive candidate has been widening his lead in the final stretch of the count. The question remains whether the lead he manages to secure domestically will be enough to withstand the surge of overseas votes favoring the right.
“We will be able to build the broadest possible consensus”
Sánchez has been cautious regarding the exit polls and the official count showing him as the winner; he has said we must wait for the final result, but he has also expressed confidence in his victory. On Monday, he said he was calm and expressed confidence that the official count would confirm the victory indicated by two exit polls.
When asked about the polarization in the country evident in this election, Sánchez highlighted the coalition he has formed with various parties and organizations, and stated that he is willing to engage in dialogue and reach consensus. “We will be able,” he said, “to build the broadest possible consensus so that our only enemies are corruption and poverty. To defeat poverty and exclusion in our country, we must be able to come together with all Peruvians.”
On Sunday night, after the exit polls showing him in first place were released, Sánchez appeared, accompanied by his wife, on the balcony of his party’s headquarters in the central Plaza San Martín to address, in a celebratory tone, his enthusiastic supporters, who were waving flags and chanting victory slogans. Earlier, he had met with leaders of his party, Juntos por el Perú, and other groups with which he has formed alliances to create a coalition that aims to govern. Together with them, he heard the results of the exit poll that overturned the figures from the two exit polls that had previously shown him losing.
“Comrades, people of all races, the common people, the Peruvian people, on this blessed night, before our holy people, Peru—a nation of all races—is prioritizing the fundamental will to restore democracy for all peoples,” were the words with which the progressive candidate began his speech—which did not quite amount to a victory speech, but came close—from the balcony of the historic Plaza San Martín. “The constructive milestone begins to end the mafia pact that has taken over our government,” he said, referring to the right-wing coalition led by Fujimorism that controls Congress, and which, from that position of power, exerts decisive influence over the government and has captured a series of institutions, such as the Constitutional Court, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ombudsman’s Office, and the National Board of Justice, which appoints and removes judges and prosecutors. She promised to end this situation and restore full democracy.
Doubts Regarding Keiko’s Statements
Keiko Fujimori stated on Monday that we must wait “calmly, with great prudence” for the official election results. She pledged to respect those results, even if they do not favor her. In the 2016 and 2021 elections, which she lost by a narrow margin, she did not recognize the election results and attempted to challenge them by alleging fraud without evidence—a claim that was dismissed by all international observers in both elections—and when that attempt failed, she used Congress to boycott the presidents who defeated her, ushering in a cycle of political instability in the country that has led to eight presidents in the last ten years. She now claims that this will not be repeated, but she has not engaged in self-criticism regarding those actions. On Monday, she spoke of dialogue and building bridges—something that runs counter to the political conduct of the daughter of the late dictator Alberto Fujimori.
On Sunday night, after the quick count that stripped her of first place and her opponent’s victory speech, Keiko Fujimori left her home to go to a hotel where she made a brief statement to the press. She did not take questions. “We are in a technical tie; so far, there is no winner in this race, so it will be a long wait before we know the results,” she said. The celebration that had been planned ended in long faces. That Sunday night, among Fujimori’s supporters, there was a sense of mourning. In contrast, among Sánchez’s inner circle and supporters, there was a celebratory atmosphere.
On Monday, both candidates opted for caution, making brief public appearances and issuing terse statements to the media. Keiko Fujimori’s track record has cast doubt on whether she will respect the election results if she loses.
Source: Pagina 12, translation Resumen Latinoamericano in English