(BBC News) The results of the general election in Peru have been delayed after tens of thousands of people were unable to vote due to technical and logistical problems at a number of polling stations.
The electoral authorities have granted a one-day extension to more than 50,000 voters who could not cast their ballots on Sunday.
A preliminary count of half the votes that were cast put conservative candidate Keiko Fujimori slightly ahead of the right-wing former mayor of the capital, Lima, Rafael López Aliaga – but the battle for second place is very close.
All candidates are far short of the 50% of votes needed to win outright, making a runoff between the top two candidates on June 7 almost certain.
Voters who experienced problems in Lima and at polling stations abroad – such as in Orlando, Florida and Paterson, New Jersey – will be able to cast their ballots on Monday, the electoral authorities ruled.
Scores of polling stations opened late or, in some cases, not at all.
Peru’s current President José María Balcázar said that the company hired to deliver the voting material had failed to do so in time.
Voting is mandatory for Peruvians aged between 18 and 70, and those failing to cast their vote can incur a fine.
More than 27 million of Peruvians were asked to vote for members of both houses of Congress and for a new president.
Whoever wins the presidential race will replace the 83-year-old Balcázar, who has only been in the job since February.
Peru’s political establishment has been rocked by a series of scandals and impeachments that have led to the resignations, ousters and impeachments of six presidents in the last decade.
The last president to serve out his term in full was Ollanta Humala, who governed from 2011 to 2016.
Whoever wins this election will have to try to win back the trust of an electorate that is deeply suspicious of politicians, whom they often view as only serving their own interests and contributing to the political instability of the country.
Thirty-five candidates are in the running for the top job, but analysts say that who gets elected to the newly re-established Senate will also be key.
Unlike the lower house of Congress, the 60-member-strong Senate cannot be dissolved by the president and is therefore expected to wield considerable political power.
Ahead of the elections, voters demanded that candidates do more to tackle corruption and rising rates of crime.
Extortion in particular has been increasing, with public transport workers often falling victim to people demanding “protection money”.
Keiko Fujimori, who is currently leading in counted votes, is running for the fourth time, having been beaten in the previous three runoffs.
The daughter of autocratic former leader Alberto Fujimori, she enjoys high levels of name recognition among voters.
But her loyalty to her late father, who was convicted of crimes against humanity, makes her unpalatable to voters who opposed Alberto Fujimori’s rule.
Both Keiko Fujimori and another of the front runners in the opinion polls, Rafael López Aliaga, have promised to use an “iron fist” to tackle the crime wave the country is experiencing.
Fujimori said as the count was under way that “the enemy is the left”, underscoring her hope that no left-wing candidate would reach the run-off.
However, exit polls suggest that the race still remains wide open, meaning that a left-wing candidate, such as ex-tourism minister Roberto Sánchez, could overtake one of his conservative rivals to win a place in the run-off.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gd0l2x8j2o