Kuczynski’s lead narrowed to 47,286 ballots as the final votes continued to come in from rural areas and overseas.
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With over 94 percent of polling stations counted Monday morning, Kuczynski had 50.3 percent of the votes compared to 49.7 percent for his rival Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jailed former strongman Alberto Fujimori.
(As the top two vote-getters, Fujimori, with 40%, and Kuczynski, with 20%, advanced to the runoff.) Mendoza swung her support to Kuczynski in the final week of the campaign, which seems to have helped him win majorities Sunday in several southern states where Mendoza won in the first round, said David Scott Palmer, a Boston University global relations professor who is in Lima to observe the election. One review of sample ballots suggested they were more likely to favor Kuczynski. “No more low blows or fights”, said the economist, who supported fellow conservative Fujimori in the 2011 runoff won by President Ollanta Humala.
While disputes over ballots are typical in Peru, where voting is mandatory and volunteer observers can lodge complaints, they have not played a significant role in recent presidential elections that ended with candidates conceding defeat before a full vote count is complete. “The 1% to 2% of votes that he picked up as a result of her endorsement are why he is ahead”, Palmer said.
About half the remaining votes come from rural areas where Fujimori enjoys much support, while numerous rest are from foreign countries where Kuczynski is thought to have an advantage among expatriates.
While Mr Kuczynski’s campaign said it is ready to work with all political groups, supporters of Ms Fujimori expressed doubt that the wounds from the final stretch of the campaign, in which Mr Kuczynski accused Keiko Fujimori of being the harbinger of a “narco-state”, could be easily healed.
“They called us drug traffickers, thieves”, said Lourdes Alcorta, a congresswoman.
Fujimori had always been preferred to win Sunday’s election by a clear margin but Kuczynski caught up with her in final polls as Peruvians weighed the legacy of her father Alberto Fujimori, who was convicted of corruption and human rights abuse.
Kuczynski’s running mate, Martin Vizcarra, declares victory. Fujimori directed a more populist campaign, promising evangelicals that she would oppose same-sex marriages, and law and order proponents that she would build more prisons.
She also tried to cast her rival, the son of a Jewish-Polish immigrant who is married to an American and spent decades in business outside Peru, as part of the white elite establishment that has traditionally overlooked the needs of the poor.
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Fujimori has promised to take an iron-fist approach to crime, the top voter concern, while ramping up spending on scores of infrastructure projects from reservoirs to roads.
