Peru’s ballot count drags on amid frustration with presidential election

Three days out from Peru’s general election, voters are still waiting for results in the closely watched presidential race.

Leftist candidate Roberto Sanchez moved into second place on Wednesday, as the vote count continues.

But after years of political instability, Peru’s chaotic general election has done little to reassure voters that the tumult in their government is at an end.

Peru has shifted through nine presidents in just 10 years. Then, on Sunday, the general election was marred by long lines and delayed ballot deliveries, prompting authorities to grant a one-day extension for voting in some areas.

The confusion over the voting process and its results has spiked public scepticism.

“We don’t know if the results are true,” Yeraldine Garrido, a 35-year-old receptionist in Lima, told the news service AFP.

Another voter, Iris Valle, told The Associated Press she was frustrated at having to return a second day to vote. “I’m fed up,” she said.

Those sentiments have been fanned by candidates who suggested that they will not accept the results as legitimate.

Among them is former Lima Mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a far-right figure seeking a spot in June’s run-off race.

“I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” Aliaga said in a speech on Tuesday. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow, I will call for a nationwide protest.”

Observers have cautioned against unsubstantiated claims of fraud, stating that there is no firm evidence of foul play.

But the first round of voting has come down to a tight race for second place. Only the top two finishers — from a record field of 35 contenders — will advance to the second round of voting on June 7.

With about 90 percent of ballots counted on Wednesday, right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori is leading the field with 17 percent of the vote. She is all but assured of advancing to the second round.

But her opponent has yet to be decided. Sanchez currently holds 12.04 percent of the vote, and Lopez Aliaga is a close third with 11.9 percent.

Sanchez, who has risen in the count since Sunday, said that he is “proceeding calmly, with composure” as votes are tabulated.

“The ballot papers do not lie,” he said.

Growing mistrust

While the election was marked by logistical failures, particularly around the capital city of Lima, election observers have said that they have yet to see concrete evidence of fraud.

“It is clear that there have been serious problems,” Annalisa Corrado, head of the European Union Election Observation Mission to Peru, said in a news conference on Tuesday.

She cautioned that observers have “not found objective elements to support the narrative of fraud”.

Sunday’s presidential election was the first since 2022, when left-wing leader Pedro Castillo beat Fujimori, now a four-time candidate.

But roughly a year and a half into his term, Castillo faced impeachment hearings and responded by attempting to dissolve Congress. He was subsequently imprisoned, and the following two presidents — Dina Boluarte and Jose Jeri — were removed from office over corruption charges.

The result has been growing rates of disillusionment among Peruvians about the state of the country’s democracy.

A poll published in March from the Institute for Peruvian Studies (IEP) and the Institute Bartolome de las Casas (IBC) found that about 84 percent of respondents said that they were unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with how democracy was functioning in Peru.

Some 74 percent also said the country’s frequent changes in presidents has taken a toll on the country’s democracy.

Part of the survey asked respondents how they would rank the current situation in comparison to other periods of crisis in Peru’s modern history, including its bloody civil conflict in the 1990s, hyperinflation and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roughly 69 percent of respondents said the current crisis was just as bad or worse.

Even before the confusion surrounding election day, about 68 percent of respondents said that they had little to no trust in institutions tasked with overseeing the country’s elections, such as the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) and National Jury of Elections (JNE).

Since voting took place on Sunday, Peruvians have expressed disappointment with the electoral process and suggested that it could further dim their faith.

“It’s been a major democratic failure,” 60-year-old Luis Gomez, who is self-employed, told AFP.

Such frustrations may be compounded by rising concern about issues such as crime and corruption. Critics have argued that the government has struggled to cope with rising violence and influence from illicit groups amid the heightened political turbulence of the past decade, stretching back to 2016.

An October 2025 Ipsos poll found that corruption and insecurity ranked as the biggest concerns for voters, with the country’s political crisis ranking third.