Peruvian presidential candiate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski is closing on winning the election as he maintains a slim lead over his close rival with 99.53 percent of votes counted, electoral authority said Wednesday.

According to the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE),  Kuczynski won 50.12 percent of votes compared to Keiko Fujimori's 49.88 percent, in the tightest presidential election for 25 years.

By Wednesday morning, the ONPE said Kuczynski, the leader of the Peruvians for Change party, had 8,511,059 votes while Fujimori had 8,468,781 votes, giving Kuczynski a slight lead of 42,478 votes.

With the vote count perhaps continuing until Thursday, Kuczynski, the 77-year-old economist, said he will not celebrate until the results are 100 percent confirmed.

The ONPE indicated that the tight race meant that every vote would be counted and checked and that the count could last until Thursday morning.

However, political analysts in Peru are saying that the lead is now unlikely to change and that Kuczynski is all but certain to be the country's next president from 2016 until 2021.

Source:
courtesy of XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

by Xinhua News Agency

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