The Albany Gazette - Right-wing candidates tipped for runoff in Peru presidential poll

With about half the election tally counted and voting still ongoing in a handful of centers, Keiko Fujimori, the 50-year-old daughter of a disgraced ex-president, led the field with 17 percent of the vote.

She was followed on 15 percent by Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a wealthy infrastructure mogul and former mayor who has vowed to hunt Venezuelan migrants, drawing comparisons to US President Donald Trump.

There are still millions of votes to be counted, and several of the 35 presidential candidates could yet make a late surge to snatch a runoff spot.

But in a midnight address to voters, Fujimori hailed the results as victory for the political right, which, she said, had vanquished the leftist "enemy".

Voting is still underway at 13 polling places in Lima, where ballot materials failed to arrive on election day Sunday.

There are an estimated 50,000 votes still to be cast, likely not enough to affect the outcome of the presidential race.

"The authorities are so incompetent," said 56-year-old domestic worker Nancy Gomez as fed-up voters queued round the block for a second day.

Peruvians had hoped Sunday's election would end the political chaos that has brought eight presidents in a decade and a surge in violent crime.

But election day saw yet more tumult, with missing election materials preventing many polling centers from opening on time.

Amid hours-long delays, police and prosecutors raided the headquarters of the National Office of Electoral Processes in an effort to find out who was to blame.

Officials said police also raided a private subcontractor blamed for failing to deliver ballots, boxes and other materials on time.

Lopez Aliaga had initially claimed "grave electoral fraud" and called on supporters to take to the streets in protest.

But as he emerged in second place, his supporters' cries of fraud were more muted.

"We have had a logistical problem, and we have done everything humanly possible to reduce it," said Piero Corvetto, head of the election commission.

"There is no possibility of fraud," he said. "There is full assurance that the results will faithfully reflect the popular will."

- Crime and punishment -

Violent crime and corruption dominated the run-up to the vote.

Peru's homicide rate has more than doubled in a decade, while reported extortion cases jumped from 3,200 to 26,500 over the same period.

On the eve of the election, frontrunner Fujimori told AFP that she would "restore order" in her first 100 days by sending the army into prisons, deporting undocumented migrants and strengthening borders.

In an exclusive interview, Fujimori said she would seek a united front with conservative leaders in the United States, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia.

"We will ask for special powers," she said, including to modernize the police force. "We will expel undocumented citizens," she added.

This is Fujimori's fourth bid for the presidency. Her father died in 2024 after serving 16 years in prison for crimes against humanity, including directing death squads, as well as bribery and embezzlement.

During the campaign, she has leaned on newfound nostalgia for his strongman rule.

"I believe that time and history are giving my father the place he deserves," she told AFP.

Incumbent President Jose Maria Balcazar, in office for less than two months, was barred from running.

More than 90 percent of Peruvians say they have little or no confidence in their government and parliament, according to Latinobarometro.

Despite the turmoil, Peru remains one of the region's most stable economies.

(A.Moore--TAG)