Peru still without a president-elect after almost two days of vote counting

The electoral race in the second round of the Peruvian elections between the two candidates, Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori, is still close and Peru still does not have a president-elect. There were many signs that the end would be very tense and that is what is happening. Peru voted for the next president on Sunday in one of the most polarised elections in living memory. However, the difference between the two is negligible.

At 10:19 a.m. Peruvian time, with 97.311 per cent of the polling stations processed, according to the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE): Peru Libre's candidate, Pedro Castillo, had 50.227 per cent of the votes, just behind his rival Keiko Fujimori, candidate of Fuerza Popular, who has 49.773 per cent. Out of a total of 17,116,532 votes, 8,597,169 went to Castillo and 8,519,363 to Fujimora, showing the small difference between the two.

The count appeared to be advancing to 90% of the tally in the last 24 hours, moments before Castillo overtook Fujimori. The process has been slowed down because the first votes to be counted were those from Lima and other urban centres, which were heavily weighted towards the right-wing candidate. The votes from abroad will be the decisive ones after those from rural areas, which seem to be leaning more to the left, have almost been finalised. 

Throughout the counting process, Fujimori held a press conference to condemn the so-called "systematic fraud" in the ballots, and pointed out that they had discovered a series of alleged violations, for which he blamed his competitor Pedro for these irregularities. Faced with a problem that made them "worry" and which is of utmost importance, he encouraged citizens to report cases they knew about.

Peruvian voters have headed to the polls at a time of heightened political instability. Interim President Francisco Sagasti became the nation's fourth president in less than five years after Congress voted to oust former standard-bearer Martin Vizcarra and Vizcarra's replacement, Manuel Merino, resigned.

Both candidates have proposed reforms associated with the important mining sector, but Fujimori is counting on profit packages from the authorities to attract voters while Castillo has proposed structural modifications to the economic system. Peruvians are more concerned about recovery from the pandemic, which has uncovered unchecked inequality that persists regardless of significant increases in gross domestic product (GDP) and reduced poverty charges common in recent years. 

The two candidates who made it to the second round for Peru's presidency represent opposing political spectrums. The right-wing contender carried the weight of the legacy of Fujimorism, while Castillo was demonised with the ghosts of "communism" as the standard-bearer of the left.

For his part, Fujimori has promised huge spending to compensate every Peruvian household that lost someone to COVID-19 with 10,000 soles ($2,600), plus 10 billion soles ($2.6 billion) in loans to small businesses to support restoration. Its guarantees include the provision of free water to communities that do not have the principle of providing networks and the granting of 2 million property titles.

Meanwhile, Castillo has pledged to cancel major mining operations at Conga and Tingo Maria, reform the pension system, decentralise public universities and create a ministry of science and knowledge to boost industrialisation.

The two polls that were released on Sunday, after the polls closed, already announced and showed a technical tie. Conservative candidate Keiko Fujimori had a slight lead in an exit poll (50.3 per cent to 49.7 per cent), while leftist Pedro Castillo narrowly won in the quick count (50.2 per cent to 48.8 per cent) published hours later.

The presidential candidate for the Peru Libre party, Pedro Castillo, held the classic electoral breakfast in the morning of 7 June in the district of Chugur, Tacabamba. Accompanied by his family, the candidate made statements to the press. "I am sure that this will be a democratic party. We will be respectful as soon as there is an official announcement," he said.

Keiko Fujimori also had her electoral breakfast in the Lima district of San Juan de Lurigancho as part of the second round of the 2021 elections.

Accompanied by her husband Mark Vito and her daughters, as well as her brothers Kenji and Sachi Fujimori, Keiko Fujimori thanked her followers present in the Las Lomas de 27 de Marzo human settlement and asked for unity and peace on this day. "Deep gratitude to all Peruvians. We don't know what the result will be, but whatever it is, we must first ratify our commitment to respect the will of the people," she declared.