By Alexander Villegas and Marco Aquino
LIMA, June 11 (Reuters) - Peru's electoral jury began reviewing contested ballots on Thursday with the initial count virtually complete and candidates separated by the slimmest of margins.
Conservative Keiko Fujimori inched into the lead late on Wednesday night, boosted by overseas ballots that gave her 50.002% of the vote to leftist Roberto Sanchez's 49.998%, a difference of about 600 votes out of 18 million.
More than 98% of the vote has been counted according to Peru's ONPE electoral authority, but most of those remaining are contested ballots. Only 13 of the more than 90,000 polling stations remain to be counted while about 1,600 - representing around 400,000 votes - have been sent for review to Peru's National Elections Jury (JNE).
The review is expected to take weeks. Most of the contested ballots are from the Lima metropolitan region, Fujimori's stronghold.
Markets have largely recovered from a Friday selloff that occurred after Sanchez, who has vowed to reform Peru's mining-heavy economy, rose in the polls. Peru's main stock index was up 2.6% on Thursday while the sol currency rose 0.73% against the dollar to 3.38.
The two candidates have been neck-and-neck throughout the count, with Fujimori leading exit polls and Sanchez being slightly ahead in the Ipsos quick count, which has accurately predicted previous races.
Fujimori and Sanchez had called for calm and patience throughout the count, but Sanchez - who overtook Fujimori on Monday, buoyed by rural votes - began to harden his tone on Wednesday and called for a meeting with international observers to discuss "strange, unusual and questionable developments."
On Thursday, Sanchez said he had important meetings with observers from the European Union and Organization of American States.
"Our people are vigilant, the vote and democracy must be respected," Sanchez said on X when he announced the meetings took place.
Some Sanchez supporters gathered outside JNE offices in central Lima on Wednesday but were dispersed with water cannons.
This is Fujimori's fourth consecutive runoff after losing the last two by just fractions of a percent. In 2021, Fujimori - the daughter of polarizing former President Alberto Fujimori - lost to now-jailed President Pedro Castillo by around 45,000 votes.
Sanchez, who served as a minister under Castillo, has been his political heir in this race, donning the same signature cowboy hat and waiting for early results outside the prison where Castillo is being held.
Speaking to reporters outside her home on Thursday, Fujimori reiterated that she would wait for the final count to be announced before making any definitive statement on the race.
Fujimori, who made accusations of fraud in the 2021 election she lost, said that the 2026 race had been carried out transparently with thousands of poll watchers from both parties and international observers.
"I think that gives (the election) the credibility, tranquility and trust of the citizenry," Fujimori said.
(Reporting by Alexander Villegas, Marco Aquino and Bipasha Dey; Editing by Kate Mayberry, Kevin Buckland and Bill Berkrot)
