Another twist in the counting of the 2nd round of Peru's presidential elections placed the right-wing candidate, Keiko Fujimori, ahead of the left-wing candidate Roberto Sánchez Palomino by a difference of just 561 votes. This in a universe of 27 million voters eligible to vote. The election reached 98.2% of the votes counted. With 9,032,632 votes, Fujimori regained the lead with 50.002% against 49.998% for Sánchez, who had 9,032,092 votes this Thursday morning (11). Related news: Peru elections: Sánchez's lead over Fujimori drops to 7 thousand votes. Election in Peru: Sánchez ahead of Fujimori by just 19 thousand votes. The counting of votes from abroad, which helped Fujimori surpass Sánchez, has been completed. Abroad, Fujimori got 63.4% against his opponent's 36.5%. Despite the advanced investigation, it is estimated that the definitive result will only be released in July. This is because there are 1,400 electoral records under observation. These ballot boxes were, for some reason, questioned and must undergo a recount at the National Electoral Jury (JNE) of Peru. In addition to the 1,400 ballot boxes placed under observation, only 20 electoral records remain to be counted out of a total of 92,700. The postgraduate professor of Latin American Integration at the University of São Paulo (USP), Gustavo Menon, highlighted to Agência Brasil that the majority of the minutes placed under observation are from the Lima region, where Fujimori has the most votes and suggests that she should win. “The fact that the result is being decided vote by vote, in an environment of deep distrust towards institutions, reinforces the perception of a fragmented political system, with a low capacity to produce stable consensus and minimally predictable governments,” he commented. The winner will be Peru's ninth president in ten years of political crisis, with two resignations and four presidents dismissed by Parliament, considered the de facto power in the South American country.  For Menon, such a tight dispute highlights a society deeply divided in territorial, social and ideological terms. "Lima and the interior, the fractions of the dominant classes and the popular sectors project an almost antagonistic country in the electoral process. Keiko and Fujimorism defend the continuity of a Peru marked by privatizing policies, while Sánchez proposes the refoundation of the Peruvian State", he added. Turnaround The counting of the 2nd round of the presidential election in Peru is being marked by twists and turns between the two candidates, in one of the fiercest disputes in recent times. At the beginning of the count, when only 20% of the ballot boxes had been processed, Keiko was 200,000 votes ahead of Sánchez, due to the fact that the ballot boxes in Lima, the capital, had been counted first. However, the partial result took a turn on Monday (8), when Sánchez numerically surpassed Keiko with 93.9% of the votes counted. The left-wing candidate opened up a difference of more than 40 thousand votes, but then the distance was reduced until Keiko's new turnaround.  Keiko x Sánchez Roberto Sánchez and Keiko Fujimori are competing for the presidential term in Peru for the five-year period from 2026 to 2031. The winner will be the ninth president of the South American country in ten years of political crisis. Since 2016, two presidents have resigned and four have been dismissed by Parliament, considered the de facto power in the country.  Daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori, convicted of human rights violations, which included forced sterilization of indigenous women, Keiko lost in the last three elections in the second round, in 2011, 2016 and 2021. On the other side, there is Roberto Sánchez, an ally of former president Pedro Castillo, who was dismissed, arrested and convicted of an attempted coup d'état when trying to dissolve Parliament. For his supporters, Castillo was the victim of a coup by the Legislature for representing the country's rural and indigenous vote. A psychologist by training, Sánchez is a federal deputy for the Todos pelo Peru party, having been Castillo's minister. As soon as he voted on Sunday (7) in Lima, Sánchez went to the Barbadillo prison, where Castillo is being held, remaining there until the first partial results were released.