By Marco Aquino, Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Lucinda Elliott
LIMA, April 13 (Reuters) - Conservative Keiko Fujimori held a slim lead in Peru's crowded presidential election field L1N40R0V5 on Monday, with a runoff looking likely next month as vote counting dragged into a second day after polling station hours were extended for tens of thousands of people.
The official count from electoral authority ONPE showed in the early hours that former congresswoman Fujimori was leading with about 17% of the vote, followed by right‑wing former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga on roughly 15% and center‑left candidate Jorge Nieto in third place with around 13%. Just over 50% of votes had been counted.
With no clear frontrunner and none of the leading candidates anywhere near the 50% required to win outright, a June 7 runoff looks highly likely, prolonging political uncertainty in the world's third‑largest copper producer amid rising crime levels and intensifying geopolitical competition nL6N40C17N between the United States and China.
Voting hours were extended by one more day until 6 p.m. local time (2300 GMT) on Monday for more than 50,000 people who were unable to cast ballots on Sunday nL6N40V04I after the opening of some polling stations was delayed in some areas of the capital Lima due to logistical problems that officials blamed on the distribution of voting materials.
Roberto Burneo, head of Peru's electoral authority (JNE), said legal action would be taken against the company responsible for the failures.
Voters had reported waiting in hours-long lines, unable to cast their ballot in the elections, which will also choose a new congress.
Fujimori – daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, who was imprisoned for human rights abuses – said she expressed solidarity with those who were "denied the opportunity to exercise their right to vote" in a statement, adding she would begin campaigning immediately for a second round.
Lopez Aliaga, the face of the Popular Renewal party, encouraged his supporters to go to the polls during extended voting hours on Monday, in a video shared on X.
"Popular Renewal does not give up... Let's go tomorrow, Monday, to vote on everything that we have not been able to vote on today," he said.
POLITICAL INSTABILITY
Exit polls on Sunday had placed Fujimori in the lead, although Lopez Aliaga briefly moved ahead earlier in the official count, underscoring how tight and fluid the race remains.
Years of political turmoil in the Andean nation have eroded confidence in institutions and left many voters deeply disillusioned.
Since 2018, Peru has cycled through eight presidents, fuelling scepticism that any incoming administration will last a full five‑year term amid repeated impeachments, corruption scandals and fragile governing coalitions.
(Reporting by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez, Lucinda Elliot and Marco Aquino; editing by Cassandra Garrison and Hugh Lawson)
