The right-wing candidate in the presidential election in Peru, Keiko Fuhimori, increased her borderline lead against left-wing candidate Roberto Sanchez -- whose party spoke yesterday of irregularities in the process -- on the basis of the still unconfirmed official results.
With over 99% of the counting practices integrated, Fuhimori secures 50.097% of the vote, compared to 49,903% of Mr Sanchez, according to the Peruvian National Election Service (ONPE) website.
The daughter of authoritarian former President Alberto Fuhimori (1990–2000) is ahead of her opponent by a few more than 35,000 votes, out of the 19 million tabled.
However, before being declared a winner or winner, authorities remain to consider questionable counting minutes -- yesterday, they accounted for about 256,000 votes.
According to the electoral authorities, final official results may not be announced until the end of the month.
At the same time, Roberto Sanchez's party, Juntos por el Perú (along for Peru), framed with his announcement the "lack of transparency" of the electoral authorities, the "modifications of rules" of the process and "many irregularities", without going into details.
A week ago, when Sanchez was on his way to victory, his group assured him that he would respect the outcome, whatever it is. However yesterday he called to a demonstration the day after Friday in Lima in order to "defend the vote" of Peruvians, "people's victory and democracy".
Fuhimori's party assured that it would wait for the counting process to be completed before declaring its victory.
The European Union's election observation mission considered that the second round of presidential elections was conducted in a calm and coordinated manner, despite the highly polarised campaign.
This election took place on the background of the fragmentation of political power in Peru, experiencing perennial instability. The president or president to take office on 28 July will be the ninth or ninth in the last ten years.