MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru extends voting to Monday as Fujimori and Lopez Aliaga emerge as runoff contenders

The official ONPE count, with 47% of ballots processed at the time of publication, showed Fujimori in first place with 17.05%, followed by López Aliaga at 15.36%

Peru will hold an unprecedented supplementary voting day on Monday: more than 52,000 citizens unable to cast ballots on Sunday due to logistical failures will vote at 187 polling stations in Lima and in the overseas jurisdictions of Orlando, Florida, and Paterson, New Jersey. The National Elections Jury (JNE) authorized the extension and urged polling firms to suspend the release of surveys to avoid influencing remaining voters.

The decision followed the failure of contractor Servicios Generales Galaga to deliver electoral materials on time to several Lima districts, preventing the setup of 211 polling stations at 15 voting centers. The National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) initially put the number of affected voters at 63,300 but later revised it to 52,251. ONPE chief Piero Corvetto called the incident a “limited logistical problem.” Investigative outlet Convoca revealed that the company responsible for the delay had been a supplier to the Lima municipality during candidate Rafael López Aliaga's tenure as mayor.

Despite the extension, a full quick count by Datum Internacional — based on roughly 300,000 tallied ballots — places conservative Keiko Fujimori (Fuerza Popular) and ultraconservative López Aliaga (Renovación Popular) as the two candidates who will contest the runoff on June 7. Datum CEO Urpi Torrado estimated that Monday's pending votes would not alter the outcome, noting that each tenth of a percentage point represents approximately 20,000 votes.

The official ONPE count, with 47% of ballots processed at the time of publication, showed Fujimori in first place with 17.05%, followed by López Aliaga at 15.36% and centrist Jorge Nieto in third with 13.25%. ONPE warned that full results could take several days and that updates would be posted every 15 minutes on its digital platform.

Sunday's exit polls had painted a more open picture. Ipsos placed Fujimori at 16.6%, followed by leftist Roberto Sánchez (12.1%), Ricardo Belmont (11.8%), López Aliaga (11%) and Nieto (10.7%) — all within the three-point margin of error for second place. Datum's quick count, with a narrower margin of error of roughly 1%, consolidated López Aliaga's advantage over the rest of the field.

If confirmed, it would be the fourth consecutive time Fujimori reaches a presidential runoff. She lost in 2011 to Ollanta Humala, in 2016 to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and in 2021 to Pedro Castillo. After learning the preliminary results, she told AFP she intended to “restore order” in her first 100 days in office. López Aliaga, for his part, alleged without evidence that the logistical delays amounted to “a case of fraud.”

The election was held with a record 35 presidential candidates and more than 27 million registered voters, in a country that has had nine presidents in the past decade. In addition to the presidency, Peruvians elected a bicameral Congress for the first time in more than 30 years, with 130 lower-house members and 60 senators.