Leftist Peruvian presidential candidate Roberto Sánchez during a press conference on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in Lima denouncing fraud. Photo: Joma Gálaga/Peru21.
Caracas (OrinocoTribune.com)—During a press conference held Tuesday, Roberto Sánchez, the leftist presidential candidate for Juntos por el Perú (Together for Peru), warned of ongoing fraud within Peru’s electoral system. The politician reaffirmed his decision to reject Keiko Fujimori’s proclamation as president of Perú, citing irregularities detected in the processing of election results from consulates abroad.
The leftist politician requested the annulment of the overseas vote. According to the leader, the Peruvian government violated electoral law by changing the rules for the presidential runoff. Roberto Sánchez also demanded strict security for the ballots until their arrival in the capital, Lima.
🔴Roberto Sánchez no acepta resultados: “No reconoceremos el gobierno de la señora Fujimori”
➡️Sánchez afirmó que ha solicitado la nulidad de votos y pidió a las autoridades electorales revisar el proceso. Asimismo, anunció que el sábado habrá "una jornada nacional de lucha… pic.twitter.com/R9Icf2lcf0
— Perú21 (@peru21noticias) June 23, 2026
Tight electoral margin and shifting leads
With 99.7% of the votes counted, the Peruvian electoral authority, the National Electoral Board, reports that far-right Fujimori obtained 50.11% of the valid votes compared to 49.88% for Sánchez, a difference of just over 40,000 votes in one of the closest elections in the country’s recent history.
During the counting process, the far-right candidate began with a lead, but the results dramatically changed when the votes from the mountain areas and the countryside of Perú began to be counted and Sánchez took the lead.
Later, with the counting of the votes abroad, Fujimori was able, according to the official authority, to regain the lead, however, with a minuscule margin. Roberto Sánchez thus is considered by many as the president of Perú as he won, according to official reports, the majority of votes within the country.
Irregularities in the overseas vote
In the press conference, Sánchez explained that there is “a fraud in progress” and stated that there has been manipulation of the votes cast abroad, which have largely favored the far-right candidate.
Juntos por el Perú maintains that the electoral process has been “seriously affected” by the modifications introduced at the end of May at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which ordered that the records and votes from the 119 consular offices be transferred to Perú before sending the digitalized tallies to Lima, thus adding a layer of opacity to the process while opening the possibility for breaking the chain of custody of the electoral results from the voting abroad process.
“We have requested a recount of the votes, they refuse to consider it. What are they hiding?” Sánchez asked at the press conference. “Wouldn’t there be greater confidence, greater certainty?”
According to the candidate, the decision to physically transport the electoral records from the consulates to Lima via diplomatic pouches, instead of transmitting them digitally as in the first round, violated electoral security principles and opened the door to potential manipulation of the results.
Call for popular mobilization
The candidate announced a mobilization in Lima and other cities for this Saturday with the aim of defending the vote of his supporters and pressuring the electoral authorities to address the evidence of fraud.
“We will appeal to the struggle of patriotic, popular, and democratic resistance, based on the rule of law, based on our constitutional rights,” Sánchez said. The demonstrations will also serve to repudiate political persecution and demand the release of former president Pedro Castillo.
Peru: Final Election Results Pending due to Contested Ballots; Protests Reported in Lima
Castillo was ousted by a parliamentary coup in 2022 that led to the de facto government of Dina Boluarte. Boluarte was promptly disposed of by Perú’s political elite and replaced by presidents José Jerí and, subsequently, José María Balcázar. Both were appointed by the extremely unpopular and far-right Peruvian Congress.
In fact, the last Peruvian president elected by the public was Pedro Castillo, over five years ago.
Special for Orinoco Tribune by staff
OT/JRE/SL
