Race tied between left- and right-wing rivals in Peru’s presidential vote 

The left- and right-wing contenders in Peru’s presidential race were neck and neck as counting of the votes cast in Sunday’s election neared completion.

With more than 92 percent of polling centres reporting results on Monday, right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori held a slender lead over leftist rival congressman Roberto Sanchez. The even split illustrates deep political polarisation in the South American country.

Fujimori, a four-time candidate and daughter of former hardline President Alberto Fujimori, was less than one percentage point ahead on 50.2 percent, versus Sanchez’s 49.8 percent.

The count was expected to narrow further as the final ballots were tallied in rural areas, where Sanchez has dominated in Peru’s tense election season.

Both of the rivals are vying to become the South American country’s ninth leader in a decade, following a series of forced resignations and impeachments.

“As of now, there is no winner. There will be long days ahead,” said Fujimori late on Sunday. Sanchez described the race as a “dead heat”.

“The result reflects the country’s divisions,” Paulo Vilca, a political analyst at the Peruvian Studies Institute, told the AFP news agency. “Whoever wins will have half the country against them.”

Fujimori, 51, has pitched her candidacy in the tough-on-crime mould of her father, vowing to “defeat terrorism” and impose a 60-day state of emergency.

The elder Fujimori – who installed Keiko as his first lady in the 1990s amid a divorce from his wife – was accused of forced sterilisation of Indigenous people and extrajudicial killings carried out by “death squads”.

Keiko Fujimori has defended her family’s legacy and claimed her opponent would drive Peru into a failed socialist state and “regression”.

But in the final stretch of the race, 57-year-old Sanchez has gained more ground.

A former psychologist and trade minister under leftist President Pedro Castillo, Sanchez moderated his campaign approach in recent weeks while seeking out rural voters and promising anti-poverty measures, police reform and a new constitution built through “citizen participation”.

He has also pledged to pardon Castillo, who is serving a prison sentence following a failed attempt to dissolve Peru’s Congress in 2022.

If he won, Sanchez would have presidential immunity from charges related to past financial irregularities in his party, though he would still face possible ousting attempts from the country’s right-wing legislature.

The current result echoes the 2021 run-off, when Fujimori and Castillo finished roughly 50.1 percent to 49.9 percent. Calling the race dragged on for weeks amid nullity challenges.