By Marco Aquino, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Leila Miller
LIMA, April 15 (Reuters) - With about 90% of votes counted, three candidates were vying to face conservative leader Keiko Fujimori in a presidential runoff as counting entered a fourth day on Wednesday, official data showed.
Left-wing congressman Roberto Sanchez and right-wing former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga had recorded about 12% of the votes each, while center-left candidate Jorge Nieto had roughly 11%, Peru's electoral body, ONPE, said.
Sanchez moved into second place in the tight election overnight, while Fujimori, a former congresswoman and the daughter of late former President Alberto Fujimori, remained in first place with 16.9% of the vote in Sunday's election, according to the official tally.
She is set to advance to a runoff due on June 7, in her fourth bid for the presidency of the South American country.
As counting continues, allegations of fraud have begun to spread. Lopez Aliaga and Sanchez have expressed concerns about the integrity of the process, with Lopez Aliaga sharing early Wednesday a post that called for Keiko to request the proceedings to be annulled.
European Union election observers said at a press conference on Tuesday that they had found no concrete evidence to support allegations of fraud that have circulated since Sunday.
THE MAIN CANDIDATES
Fujimori, 50, also reached the runoff in all three of her previous campaigns. She leads the Popular Force party, which anchors a right-wing bloc in Congress.
She has positioned herself as pro-U.S., pitching foreign investment, and her campaign has emphasized a law-and-order message, echoing the militarized security policies associated with the presidency of her father, who ruled from 1990 to 2000 before being jailed for human rights abuses.
Sanchez, 57, a congressman running for the left‑leaning Together for Peru party, has called for a new constitution to establish a "plurinational" state that would give a greater voice to Indigenous communities that have felt excluded from national decision‑making.
From prison, former leftist president Pedro Castillo, who was jailed on rebellion and conspiracy charges after his failed attempt to dissolve Congress in December 2022, has publicly endorsed Sanchez as his preferred successor.
"Let no constitutional president ever again be removed from office or arrested," Sanchez said Wednesday on X, calling once again for Castillo's release.
Lopez Aliaga, 65, is an ultraconservative businessman from the Popular Renewal party and a former Citibank corporate banker. Nicknamed "Porky" after the cartoon character Porky Pig, he opposes abortion, same-sex marriage and what he calls "gender ideology."
(Reporting by Marco Aquino, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Leila Miller; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
