With 92.5 percent of votes counted in Peru’s June 5 presidential runoff, economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski holds a narrow lead with 50.32 percent of votes over Keiko Fujimori’s 49.68 percent.
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Let me explain: Neck and neck in this race are economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, known as PPK, and congresswoman Keiko Fujimori, whose father Alberto governed in the 1990s when the Shining Path guerrilla terrorized the country. He was convicted on human rights and corruption charges and is serving 25 years in prison.
Mr Kuczynski’s narrow lead of 50.52 per cent against 49.48 per cent for Fujimori meant he was not yet declared the victor, though local analysts said it would be hard for her to reverse the result with so few votes left to count.
Speaking from a balcony at his campaign headquarters in Lima, Mr. Kuczynski told his supporters to be patient – but also to be on the lookout for fraud.
“We can’t remain indifferent before this turbulence in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is a outcome of an imperialist and oligarchic counteroffensive against popular and progressive governments”, he said.
“Ole, ole, PPK!” yelled the crowd.
Keiko Fujimori urged her voters to sit tight and wait.
“We are going to have a government built on consensus”, said Kuczynski. The country has the second largest copper deposits, the fifth largest gold reserves, and is in the top five worldwide producers of lead and zinc.
“We must be vigilant that they don’t steal the vote at the table”, Mr. Kuczynski said Sunday night, according to The Associated Press.
“I’m the candidate, not my father”, USA -educated Keiko Fujimori has repeatedly said. They have also vowed to fight crime and create jobs in the Andean nation.
Maxime Kuczynski, the candidate’s father, was born in Posen, Poland, and moved to Berlin with his parents when he was a baby.
Fujimori is the granddaughter of Japanese immigrants. Her style is more populist, his more internationalist.
“She is the only one who has signed a commitment to oppose gay marriages”. Voter rejection of her father’s criminal past was cited as a primary reason for her failure to add sufficiently to her first round vote tally. His American wife is a cousin of Hollywood actress Jessica Lange. “There was a lot of repression and a lot of people died and disappeared”, said 61-year-old Enrique Castillo, who was in line to vote at a polling station.
“We want security and stability so that foreign investment will come”. He promises to promote economic growth.
The country is a big exporter of copper, gold and other minerals.
President Ollanta Humala is celebrating a new benchmark in Peru’s democracy as he casts his ballot in Sunday’s presidential election. But ties to corruption led to a strong anti-fujimorista vote.
But it won a majority in the congress in a first-round vote in April.
Fujimori has waged a more energetic campaign than her rival, whirling out regional dances in far-flung villages where she has promised to deliver tractors and portrayed her rival as out-of-touch with struggling Peruvians. The results of the election could be announced by Friday, he said.
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Mariano Cucho, the head of the country’s electoral office, says it could take until as late as Thursday for those ballots to arrive.
