MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru's electoral board reiterates it will proclaim the president-elect by mid-July

The tribunal is awaiting the resolution of 1,661 tally sheets (actas) that were flagged on runoff day and sent to the special electoral juries (JEE) for evaluation

Peru's National Jury of Elections (JNE) reiterated on Monday that the maximum deadline to officially proclaim the new president-elect is mid-July, while vote recounts proceed in three overseas cities over observations to the tally sheets. The body's spokeswoman, Grecia Rentería, said at a press conference that the proclamation would come about two weeks before the swearing-in, set for July 28, with the start of the 2026-2031 term of government.

The tribunal is awaiting the resolution of 1,661 tally sheets (actas) that were flagged on runoff day and sent to the special electoral juries (JEE) for evaluation. Rentería explained that, if the observation is not resolved in the review, the ballots are requested and a recount audience is convened within three days, after which the parties have another three days to appeal, a procedure that delays the close of the definitive count. The number of flagged tally sheets, she noted, rose by more than 50% compared with previous elections.

To date, 1,493 tally sheets have already been resolved and 175 have passed to a recount, of which 15 have had a public audience and another 83 are scheduled. Among the polling tables that went to a recount are three abroad —Asunción (Paraguay), Washington (United States) and Florence (Italy)— two of them with an audience already planned.

A week after the runoff, the count stands at 98.59% of the vote and gives 50.051% to the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori, of Fuerza Popular, against 49.949% for the left-wing candidate Roberto Sánchez, of Juntos por el Perú. Fujimori's lead is 18,478 votes, in one of the closest runoffs in Peruvian history. No winner has yet been proclaimed, and much of the tally sheets under review come from Lima, Fujimori's electoral stronghold, so their resolution could widen that gap.

Sánchez, who ran on behalf of the jailed former president Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), had requested a full recount of the vote to give the result greater legitimacy, a proposal that the Fujimori party rejected; his request to annul more than 1,700 tally sheets was also dismissed by the JNE. The vote of Peruvians abroad, as well as in Lima and several coastal cities, mainly favored Fujimori, while support for Sánchez was concentrated in the rural and southern regions of the country.