Unjustified absenteeism of polling station members, delays, and chaos on Sunday prevailed during the Peruvian election day, the first to be held in the country without knowing which two presidential candidates will advance to the second round.
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Unlike in previous processes, a runoff election will be necessary because no candidate is projected to get even close to 50 percent of the votes. A survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP) revealed that none of the 18 nominees will exceed 10 percent of the ballots.
The IEP assured that there will be a tie among the top five candidates, as the differences between their percentages were smaller than the poll's margin of error.
Former center-right lawmaker Yonhy Lescano, neoliberal economist Hernando de Soto, former Alianza Lima goalkeeper George Forsyth, and Keiko Fujimori are disputing the preference of conservative voters.
"There is a lot of uncertainty. The data is changing day by day, and the undecided people percentage is very high," Market Research and Public Opinion Company (CPI) Director Manuel Saavedra explained.
"Today anything can happen. If the elections were delayed one week there would probably be another result," political scientist Milagros Campos warned.
According to experts, the uncertain outlook is given by the political crisis and corruption scandals that have shaken the country in recent months.
"The traditional parties have ceased to represent the people, and the newer movements are by barely known leaders who have a little political background," Campos said.
"The people have lost confidence in the establishment because the state is in permanent conflict. People no longer believe that politics can solve day-to-day problems," the political scientist adds.
Another issue that has influenced Peruvians' low expectations towards politics is corruption.
Sixty-one percent of Peruvians believe that the country's main social problem is corruption, and 95 percent of them believe that more than half of the politicians are involved in illegalities, according to a survey by Ipsos Peru.