LIMA: Peru’s presidential runoff was still too close to call as the count dragged into Monday, with four-time candidate Keiko Fujimori locked in a statistical tie with her leftist rival to become the country’s ninth president in a decade.
With 73 percent of polling centers reporting, Fujimori had a four-point lead over Roberto Sanchez, but that was projected to evaporate as ballots came in from rural areas that Sanchez has dominated.
“As of now there is no winner. There will be long days ahead,” said Fujimori, the daughter of a late president who had been jailed for human rights violations.
Many voters had hoped Sunday’s election would draw a line under years of political chaos that has seen a string of presidents jailed, deposed and impeached.
But the country is deeply divided between the populous coast and the more rural, Indigenous south.
