Peruvian presidential candidate, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, on Tuesday maintained a razor thin lead in the vote count for Sunday's election, with 50.14 percent of votes for him while 97.1 percent of all votes counted, the National Office for Electoral Processes (ONPE) announced.

However, Kuczynski did not call his victory as his opponent, Keiko Fujimori, stood at 49.86 percent.

The ONPE report on Tuesday morning stated that the candidates are divided by 47,187 votes, with Kuczynski having received 8,362, 333 votes and Fujimori 8,315,146 votes.

Due to this tight difference, both Kuczynski and Fujimori are waiting for every vote to be counted, before making their announcements.

Mariano Cucho, ONPE's director, said the votes from Peruvians abroad were still being counted. 884,924 Peruvians abroad were registered to vote.

Cucho explained that the vote would likely continue until the early hours of June 8, in order to ensure no mistakes are made and to make a final announcement in a very tight race.   Despite this close election, absenteeism was on the rise in this election, with 18.78 percent of voters not voting, higher than the rates seen in the last four presidential election.

With less than one percentage point between the two candidates,  this election is the tightest in Peru in 25 years, according to Peruvian daily El Comercio.

Whoever wins this race will assume office on July 28 with a mandate lasting until 2021.  

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by Xinhua News Agency

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