LIMA, PERU — The votes have been counted. All of them. And Peru still does not have a president.
With the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) having processed 100% of the votes, Keiko Fujimori holds a narrow lead of just over 24,000 ballots — with the outcome now hinging on the resolution of 1,551 contested ballots. The Electoral Special Juries are set to begin proclaiming results shortly, with official certification expected by mid-July at the latest, but Fujimori is asking officials to confirm the results, stating, “Everyday of delay in knowing the results is a day lost for the transition process.”
Her opponent, socialist candidate Roberto Sánchez vows, “We will not recognize the government of Mrs. Fujimori.”
Fujimori leads with 50.11 percent of valid votes against Sánchez’s 49.89 percent. The OAS and EU election observer missions both said voting had proceeded normally and urged the country to await the official tally.
Roberto Sánchez has a different assessment. On Tuesday, he held a press conference, declared fraud, called on Peru’s electoral court to annul the overseas vote, warned his supporters of a coming “state of political and social struggle,” and announced he would not recognize a Fujimori presidency under any circumstances.
He had said the opposite — explicitly and publicly — eighteen days earlier.
What Sánchez Is Alleging
Sánchez’s central allegation is procedural rather than evidentiary: he argues that the overseas tally sheets were not digitized immediately after the vote in the second round, as they were in the first round, which in his view weakened the safeguards of the process. He blamed the Foreign Ministry and ONPE for the change and filed a formal request with the National Jury of Elections to annul votes from 119 consular offices abroad — a move that would affect more than 300,000 overseas ballots.
If that request were to prosper, the result would be reversed: counting only the votes cast within Peru, Sánchez would overtake Fujimori. Sánchez won decisively among voters inside Peru. Fujimori’s overall lead comes from the overseas count — Peruvian expatriates in Argentina, Spain, and the United States broke heavily for the right.
The authorities have rejected the objections. Peru’s Foreign Ministry categorically denied any manipulation and explained that the suspension of the tally-sheet scanning application for the runoff was decided in coordination with ONPE owing to technical difficulties detected in the first round — without altering the Organic Election Law — and assured that all tally sheets arrived intact at central headquarters within 72 hours.
No evidence of fraud has been presented. The JNE has rejected Sánchez’s challenges. Peru’s foreign affairs ministry denied any irregularities. The international observers who were present across the country on June 7 have found nothing to substantiate the claims.
What Sánchez Said Before
The most politically damaging element of Sánchez’s fraud declaration is what he said before making it.
On June 5 — two days before the runoff — Sánchez told the outlet Exitosa Noticias “I will respect the results. I make this commitment to the country. If the citizens’ vote declares us the winners, we will celebrate. If it says otherwise, we will acknowledge it and immediately place ourselves at the service of making our Peru great.”
That commitment lasted until the overseas vote broke for Fujimori and erased Sánchez’s earlier lead inside Peru. His campaign’s reversal has drawn comparisons — which Sánchez himself invited — to Fujimori’s own rejection of the 2021 results when Castillo pulled ahead.
The Streets and the Institutions
Post-electoral protests have erupted in Lima, Puno, and Juliaca, with thousands taking to the streets denouncing the intervention of external actors to favor Fujimori. Sánchez declared “three weeks of vigilant struggle” and called a protest for this Saturday.
The state has responded by militarizing Lima’s historic center — deploying 4,500 police, 800 municipal agents, 1,000 surveillance cameras, and 15 drones. Marches by Sánchez supporters have so far been peaceful. The question is whether they remain so as the certification process drags into July and the political temperature rises.
Peru’s electoral institutions are holding — for now. The JNE has called for calm as the process unfolds, and market activity suggests an increased likelihood of certification by June 30. But the institutional credibility of those bodies has already been tested by this electoral cycle — the ONPE head resigned under pressure during the first round, the JEE was challenged by multiple candidates simultaneously, and the process has been contested at every stage by candidates across the political spectrum.
What Now
The JNE expects to proclaim the final results in mid-July, so that the new president takes office on July 28 — Peru’s independence day — for the 2026-2031 term.
Between now and then, the unresolved 1,551 contested ballots must be adjudicated, Sánchez’s annulment request for the overseas vote must be formally ruled upon, and the JNE must certify a result that one candidate has already declared illegitimate and promised to resist through “popular and patriotic resistance.”
While Fujimori’s Popular Force party will control the largest bloc in the newly restored bicameral Congress, the lack of a clear mandate and the refusal to accept the results threaten to mire the incoming administration from its first day.
Peru has been here before — almost exactly. In 2021, Fujimori rejected Castillo’s victory, filed to annul hundreds of thousands of votes without evidence, and dragged the country through six weeks of post-electoral crisis before the JNE certified the result.
The country’s institutions survived that episode. They are being asked to survive another one, with the roles reversed, and with the institutional reservoir of public trust running considerably lower than it was five years ago.
Whatever the outcome, five more years of political instability appears all but certain. Peru is on its ninth president in a decade. The tenth may be decided by lawyers before it is decided by voters.
