By Marco Aquino
LIMA, June 23 (Reuters) - Peru's leftist presidential candidate Roberto Sanchez said on Tuesday he would not recognise the result of the country's presidential runoff, alleging fraud as his conservative rival Keiko Fujimori maintains a narrow lead.
The declaration raises the prospect of a prolonged political crisis in Peru as the country awaits a final result in one of the closest presidential races in its history.
At a press conference, Sanchez said "fraud is underway" in favour of Fujimori, without providing evidence. Electoral authorities have been reviewing contested ballots from the June 7 runoff for weeks, with Fujimori leading 50.11% to 49.89%.
Sanchez also called on the electoral authority to pause the pending vote count.
"We believe there's been a manipulation of the vote," Sanchez said, accusing Peru's ONPE electoral authority and Fujimori's campaign of irregularities in the votes cast abroad, which heavily favoured Fujimori. "We will not recognize Fujimori's government," he added.
The electoral authority, electoral jury and Fujimori's campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sanchez called on voters to march against electoral authorities on Saturday. Marches by his supporters so far have been peaceful.
On Monday, Sanchez called on the national electoral jury (JNE) to annul the votes from 119 consular offices, a move that could affect some 300,000 overseas votes, arguing that a change to rules before the runoff impacted the transportation of ballots. The electoral body has rejected that claim.
FUJIMORI CLOSING THE GAP
Sanchez led the race earlier as rural votes were counted, but Fujimori closed the gap as ballots cast overseas began to be processed.
Fujimori, the daughter of late former President Alberto Fujimori, is making her fourth bid for the presidency.
With such a tight race, both candidates had refrained from claiming victory or conceding defeat until 100% of the vote had been counted. After weeks of reviewing contested ballots, 99.72% of the total vote has been counted as of early Tuesday.
Sanchez's party, Together for Peru, won the second-largest number of seats in Congress, securing 32 of the 130 seats in the lower house and 14 of 60 seats in the Senate. Fujimori's party will have the largest congressional bloc, with 22 Senate seats and 41 in the lower house.
Following the runoff, the Organization of American States and European Union election observer missions both said the voting had proceeded normally. Given the close results, they urged the country to await the official tally.
In a statement on Monday, Peru’s foreign affairs ministry denied any irregularities in the electoral process.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Alexander Villegas; Editing by Franklin Paul, Sanjeev Miglani and Deepa Babington)
