By Marco Aquino
LIMA, May 12 (Reuters) - Conservative Keiko Fujimori and leftist Roberto Sanchez are leading the vote count in the final stretch of Peru's first round April presidential election, with 99.76% of ballots tallied as of Tuesday, according to electoral authorities.
Peru's National Jury of Elections said the final result will be announced by May 15, after weeks of delays due to logistical failures and allegations of fraud.
With 99.76% of ballots counted, Fujimori, the daughter of late former
president Alberto Fujimori who is on her fourth run for the job, maintained a comfortable lead with 17.17% of the vote.
Sanchez, who is running with the backing of jailed former leftist president Pedro Castillo, stood at 12.00%, narrowly ahead of ultra‑conservative former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga with 11.91%. Sanchez has a near 15,000-vote lead over Lopez Aliaga as results continue to trickle in through Peru's ONPE electoral office.
The country's prolonged count has triggered fraud allegations, notably from Lopez Aliaga, and prompted the resignation of the country's top electoral official, who is now under investigation by the public prosecutor. European Union observers have said they found no concrete evidence of fraud.
ONPE said several thousand ballots, representing roughly 50,000 votes, remain uncounted, though voting trends in recent days indicate the final result is unlikely to shift.
No candidate won enough support to avoid a runoff election scheduled for June 7 between the top two contenders.
Together, the right‑wing parties of Fujimori and Lopez Aliaga would command a majority in both the Senate and the lower house, after Peru reinstated a bicameral legislature during April's general election.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino. Writing by Lucinda Elliott; editing by Cassandra Garrison)
