Peruvian candidate to seek annulment of overseas votes

Leftist presidential candidate Roberto Sánchez announced Saturday he will seek to annul votes from Peruvians living abroad, a move that would grant him victory in the country's closely contested election. Sánchez trails right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori by a slim margin with 99.64% of ballots counted.

Fujimori currently holds 50.11% of the valid votes compared to Sánchez's 49.88%. However, Sánchez's campaign claims that excluding the approximately 300,000 votes from overseas would reverse the result. In this scenario, Sánchez would secure 50.11% of the vote, giving him a lead of 39,614 votes over Fujimori.

Sánchez, representing the Juntos por el Perú party and formerly aligned with ex-President Pedro Castillo, cited alleged irregularities in the chain of custody for ballot boxes from abroad. He specifically pointed to a change in procedure where results were no longer transmitted digitally but required physical delivery of ballot boxes to Lima for counting. Sánchez argued this change, reportedly requested by the Foreign Ministry, compromised the integrity and security of the vote.

International election observation missions have not reported significant irregularities or evidence of fraud related to this procedural change. Sánchez, however, claimed that some ballot boxes, particularly from Argentina, arrived late and were transported without proper diplomatic security. He questioned why electoral authorities had not explained the reasons for not digitizing results at their origin.