By Alexander Villegas
LIMA, June 11 (Reuters) - The initial count has finished in Peru's runoff presidential election, but now the lengthy process of reviewing contested ballots is underway by Peru's National Electoral Jury (JNE).
With just over 1,000 votes separating both candidates out of 18 million ballots cast, the process is expected to be highly contested, observed and scrutinized by both parties.
Here's what the review process looks like and how long it can take before we find out who will be Peru's
next president.
WILL THE CONTESTED BALLOTS MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
Yes. The initial count finished with candidates separated by just over 1,000 votes while votes from more than 1,600 polling stations, representing about 400,000 votes, are up for review and have not entered the tally.
Conservative Keiko Fujimori finished the initial count with 9,036,046, or 50.004% of the vote, while leftist Roberto Sanchez got 9,034,743 votes, or 49.996%.
A vast majority of the ballots flagged for review are from the Lima region, which voted for Fujimori by a wide margin. The review process is expected to favor Fujimori.
WHAT LEADS TO VOTES BEING SENT FOR REVIEW?
Each polling station fills out a sheet with the final vote tally for each candidate. Any inconsistency in the numbers or sheet can flag it for review. Both parties also had election observers present at polling stations throughout the country and abroad, and they all had the ability to challenge the final tally, sending it for review.
WHAT HAPPENS TO VOTES THAT ARE SENT FOR REVIEW?
A Special Electoral Jury (JEE) consisting of three members reviews the tally sheet of the contested polling station. If the issue is a simple accounting error or can be resolved quickly, the ballots move into the final count.
If not, the votes at the polling station are requested and a public hearing to review the votes is called within two days. The hearings, which are streamed live on YouTube, include election observers from each party in addition to the JEE panel. They have up to three calendar days to review the votes.
After that, the votes are sent to enter the official count.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO KNOW WHO WINS?
The full review process can take weeks to complete and Peru's JNE said an official winner will be declared on July 15. But if one candidate starts pulling away by a margin, a winner could become apparent earlier.
ARE CONTESTED BALLOTS DIFFERENT FROM ANNULMENT REQUESTS?
Yes. Aside from the 1,600 polling stations flagged for review, Sanchez's team requested on Thursday that votes from about 2,400 polling stations be annulled.
Sanchez's team says there were irregularities in 1,750 polling stations in Peru, mostly from Lima, and irregularities in how votes from about 650 polling stations in the U.S. were transported.
The JNE has three days to rule on Sanchez's request. Peru's minister of foreign affairs said on Thursday that the country had detected no issues with how foreign ballots were transported.
(Reporting by Alexander Villegas; Editing by Mark Porter)
