Peru's presidential runoff shows a razor-thin gap between candidates

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LIMA, Peru (AP) — The gap between Peru's two presidential candidates narrowed to less than 20,000 votes Tuesday with 96% of ballots counted after Sunday's runoff contest.

The winner will be the South American country’s ninth president in 10 years.

Official figures showed nationalist congressman Roberto Sánchez with 50.055% of votes, while conservative politician Keiko Fujimori had 49.945%. The electoral body has counted more than 17.8 million votes.

Fujimori, the daughter of a disgraced former president, and Sánchez, an ally of an imprisoned ex-president, beat 33 other candidates in the initial vote in April, but neither earned even 20% of support. Electoral authorities took more than a month to declare them winners of that contest.

The country’s chief electoral authority, Roberto Burneo, has said the outcome of Sunday's vote will be available within 30 days. He asked voters and political organizations to “act with democratic responsibility” as the counting continues.

The slow pace is due to a law that requires each ballot and each tally sheet, which summarizes the votes from each polling station, to be taken to one of more than 100 offices to be counted. Additionally, ballots and tally sheets must arrive in the capital, Lima, from 63 countries to be counted.

Voting is mandatory for Peruvians aged 18 to 70. Failure to do so results in a fine of up to $32.

More than 27 million voters are registered. Of those, about 1.2 million were expected to cast ballots from abroad, mainly in the United States and Argentina.

Surging crime, particularly extortion, was the overarching concern for voters. Experts attribute the increasing power of organized crime to growing profits from illegal gold mining in the Andes and the Amazon.

The runoff’s winner will be sworn in to a five-year term on July 28.

Neither candidate was particularly popular, and many voters associate each with controversial Peruvian ex-presidents.

Fujimori is linked to the authoritarian and corrupt legacy of the government of her late father, Alberto Fujimori, in the 1990s. She became Peru's first lady in 1994 after her parents’ separation.

Sánchez is one of the closest allies of imprisoned former President Pedro Castillo, whom many perceive as corrupt and chaotic. Castillo’s 16-month term saw more than 70 Cabinet changes.

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