Peru’s second-round presidential election is unfolding with extraordinary tension as nearly complete vote tallies show a razor-thin margin. With more than 92% of polling stations counted, right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori leads leftist opponent Roberto Sanchez by 50.2% to 49.8%, a gap of less than one percentage point.
This near-even split underscores the severe political polarization in Peru. The outcome is expected to shift as the final ballots from rural areas—where Sanchez holds an advantage—are tallied.
Both candidates are vying to become Peru’s ninth president in a decade, following a string of resignations and forced impeachments.
“There is no winner yet. There will be many long days ahead,” Fujimori said Sunday evening. Sanchez described the race as “a deadly tightrope struggle.”
“The result reflects the country’s division. Whoever wins will have half the country against them,” Paulo Vilca, a political analyst at the Institute of Peruvian Studies, told AFP.
Opposing visions
Fujimori, 51, champions a tough-on-crime approach echoing her father, former President Alberto Fujimori. She pledges to “defeat terrorism” and declare a 60-day state of emergency. Alberto Fujimori, accused of forcibly sterilizing indigenous people and carrying out extrajudicial executions, made Keiko the first lady in the 1990s after divorcing his wife. Keiko Fujimori defends her family’s legacy and argues that her opponent would push Peru into a failed socialist state and “backwardness.”
In contrast, Sanchez, 57—a former psychologist and former trade minister under leftist President Pedro Castillo—surged strongly in the final campaign stretch. He has adopted a more moderate approach, courting rural voters with pledges of anti-poverty measures, police reform, and a new constitution built through “popular participation.” He also promises amnesty for Castillo, who is serving a prison sentence after an unsuccessful attempt to dissolve Peru’s Congress in 2022.
If victorious, Sanchez would enjoy presidential immunity from charges related to party financial violations, though he could still face the risk of removal by a Congress tilted toward the right.
The current outcome echoes the 2021 second-round race, when Fujimori and Castillo finished at 50.1% and 49.9%. That contest dragged on for weeks amid challenges to ballot validity.
