Peru’s presidential race is headed to a runoff between right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori and left-wing contender Roberto Sánchez Palomino, setting up a polarized contest to determine the country’s next president.

The definition came on Wednesday, one month after the April 12 election, following a slow vote count, fraud accusations, and a dispute between three candidates for second place.

Fujimori gathered 17.17% of the vote, followed by Sánchez Palomino with 12%. This means that they will compete in the June 7 runoff, as none of the contenders reached the required 50% of the vote to win the general election.

Peru’s electoral authorities have yet to formally announce the result, as the slow vote count has not reached 100%. However, by Wednesday, with 99.9% of ballots tallied, the second-place candidate’s lead over the third-place finisher had become mathematically irreversible.

Fujimori had a clear advantage over the other candidates almost from the start, and it seemed at first that she would be neck-and-neck with far-right candidate Rafael López Aliaga.

Sánchez........

© Buenos Aires Herald