Peru election dispute deepens as ballot count drags on
peru’s presidential race stayed unsettled on Tuesday as counting entered a third day in Lima, with partial results still incomplete and supporters of Rafael López Aliaga pressing for the resignation of electoral chief Piero Corvetto. More than 52, 000 voters were allowed to cast ballots on Monday after delivery failures disrupted polling, adding to the pressure on the process. The dispute comes as Peru holds a tightly contested 2026 election for more than 27 million mandatory voters.
Partial results keep Peru on edge
With 77 per cent of ballots counted, Keiko Fujimori was leading on 16. 86 per cent, followed by Rafael López Aliaga and Jorge Nieto. The slow pace of the count has kept Peru in a state of uncertainty, especially in Lima, where the tally is still running after several days of delayed processing.
The delays have revived memories of the 2021 election, when official results took five days. A runoff is expected around 7 June, pending official confirmation, and the unsettled count is now shaping the early political mood around Peru’s next round.
Claims of fraud face outside scrutiny
Rafael López Aliaga has questioned the integrity of the vote and the handling of postal ballots, while his supporters have demanded that Piero Corvetto step down. An EU observer mission said it found no evidence of fraud, a statement that directly challenges the accusations now circulating around the count.
The first round remains decisive for the field even as Peru waits for the final numbers. The continued delay has made every update more politically charged, with candidates and supporters closely watching each new tranche of results.
Ballots from abroad keep arriving
Separate from the domestic count, the first ballots and electoral records from abroad have been arriving in Lima. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru said the first group of votes and records came from La Paz, Bolivia, and were delivered with custody procedures in place before transfer to the ONPE.
The same process continued with material sent from Córdoba and Mendoza in Argentina, where Peru’s consuls general oversaw custody until handover to the electoral authority. That flow of overseas material has become another part of the broader Peru election picture as officials work through the vote.
What happens next
Peru now faces a crucial stretch as the count continues and officials move toward confirmation of the runoff date. For now, the result set remains partial, the dispute remains active, and Peru’s election is still being defined by the pace of the count as much as by the ballots themselves.
