By Lucinda Elliott and Marco Aquino
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 in June as vote counting dragged into a second day after polling station hours were extended for tens of thousands of people.
In Lima, long lines formed outside polling stations as commuters returned to cast ballots for president and a new bicameral congress.
The official count from electoral authority ONPE showed early on Monday 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 15%. 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.
At a polling station in the Lima district of San Juan de Miraflores, Angela Rios returned to another day of long lines.
“This is an injustice," she said while waiting to cast her ballot. "Yesterday we waited in line, and today we all have to work. No one is going to compensate us for our day."
The electoral authority had expected to have 60% of results by midnight on Sunday, a level that has yet to be reached, leaving open the possibility of a sharp swing as votes from the interior of the country are counted.
Ballots from Lima, which typically arrive first, account for about a third of the electorate where both Fujimori and Lopez Aliaga command strong bases of support.
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 brief press conference late on Sunday, adding she would begin campaigning immediately for a second round.
Meanwhile, Lopez Aliaga, the face of the Popular Renewal party who goes by the nickname “Porky,” said he would not allow a “brutal fraud,” arguing that most of the polling stations that failed to operate were in Lima, where his support has traditionally been strongest.
“Let’s go tomorrow, on Monday,” he said in a video shared on X, adding: “We have to increase turnout because this can give us one or two more points."
Nieto, who was placing third in partial counts, is a former center-left minister whose support had been rising in pre-election polls. He has pitched himself as a unifying figure with institutional experience, pledging civil‑rights reforms including same‑sex marriage and relaxing strict rules around abortion access.
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 had eight presidents, fueling skepticism that any incoming administration will last a full five‑year term amid repeated impeachments, corruption scandals and fragile governing coalitions.
Several business associations expressed concern over the election uncertainty.
“These incidents affect not only the presidential election, but also the Senate race and elections for other authorities,” the main business association representing Peru’s private sector, CONFIEP, said in a statement on Monday.
(Reporting by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez, Lucinda Elliot and Marco Aquino; additional reporting by Reuters TV; editing by Cassandra Garrison and Hugh Lawson)
