Peru went to the polls on Sunday for a tense second-round presidential election between Keiko Fujimori of Fuerza Popular and Roberto Sánchez of Juntos por el Perú — and the result could hardly be tighter. Exit polls reported by El País projected a near-deadlock: Fujimori at 50.7% and Sánchez at 49.3%.
The national electoral authority, the JNE, has confirmed that official results will not be announced until July, setting the stage for weeks of uncertainty in a country already rattled by electoral controversy. Three polling-station workers were detained in the Lima district of Los Olivos over allegations of altered ballots, though Peru’s ombudsman (Defensoría del Pueblo) later reversed course and said it was discounting the possibility of systematic fraud related to marked ballots in the capital.
The rural vote told a starkly different story from the urban centers. According to La República, Sánchez doubled Fujimori’s share among rural voters — 67.8% to 32.2% — underscoring the deep geographic and socioeconomic fault lines that define Peruvian politics. Meanwhile, more than six million eligible Peruvians — a striking number — did not vote at all in the first round, according to a JNE report on absenteeism.
Adding an eyebrow-raising detail to the evening, Sánchez reportedly received the exit-poll results alongside former president Pedro Castillo at the Barbadillo prison, where Castillo has been held since his failed self-coup in 2022. The optics are sure to fuel further debate as the country awaits the official count.
