Peru Elections: Castillo Widens His Lead as Final Results Near

With 95.96 percent of the precincts counted, Peru's presidential candidate, Pedro Castillo, is ahead of her opponent for Fuerza Popular, Keiko Fujimori, on Monday, after the candidate reversed the preliminary results.

Peru's National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) presented the updated data on a web portal so that the population could follow the vote count.

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Based on this data, the candidate for Peru Libre, Castillo, has obtained 8,548,929 valid votes, equivalent to 50.27 percent of valid votes. 

On the other hand, Fujimori has 8,457,547 valid votes, representing 49.73 percent of the processed ballots.

Meanwhile, in a public statement to her followers, Fujimori began to accuse Castillo of vote manipulation, realizing that her chances of victory grow ever slimmer.

"Peru. 'There are signs of fraud at the polling stations, declares Mrs. Fujimori. Pedro Castillo leads the official count. The virtual President-elect is expected to speak in minutes."

"We have noticed that there is a strategy of Peru Libre to distort or delay the results that reflect the will of the people. ..We follow with optimism the counting of the votes. As of recently, the difference between both candidates is 0.5%. This keeps us optimistic, as we know that the overseas vote is still to be counted," the candidate for Fuerza Peru stated.

In the first cut of the preliminary official results of the second electoral round, offered by the head of the ONPE, Piero Corvetto Salinas, close to midnight on Sunday, it was announced that Fujimori was ahead of Castillo with only 42 percent of the processed ballots.

In his appearance, Corvetto clarified that the first results offered corresponded to the close results of the urban counting centers. "The tally sheets from rural areas and abroad have yet to be counted," he noted Sunday night.