By Alexander Villegas
LIMA, June 12 (Reuters) – The initial count has finished in Peru’s runoff presidential election, but now the lengthy process of reviewing contested ballots is under way by electoral authorities.
With the candidates separated by a razor-thin margin out of roughly 18 million ballots cast, the process is expected to be closely contested and scrutinized by both sides.
Here is what the review process looks like and how long it could take before Peru knows who its next president will be.
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 votes, or 50.004% of the total, while leftist Roberto Sanchez got 9,034,743 votes, or 49.996%.
A large share of the ballots flagged for review are from Lima, which voted strongly for Fujimori, while overseas ballots have also favored her. That has led both campaigns to focus intensely on the review process.
WHAT LEADS TO VOTES BEING SENT FOR REVIEW?
Each polling station fills out a results sheet with the final vote total for each candidate. If there is a problem with the sheet, such as calculation errors, illegible writing or other inconsistencies, it is flagged for review and sent to a special election panel.
Party election observers may also challenge results at polling stations, which can feed into the review process. Both campaigns deployed poll watchers nationwide and abroad.
WHAT HAPPENS TO VOTES THAT ARE SENT FOR REVIEW?
A three-member special electoral jury reviews the tally sheet from the contested polling station. If the issue is a simple accounting or transcription problem, the jury can resolve it and the tally then moves into the official count.
If not, the jury can call a public hearing to examine the case. These hearings are public, and appeals can later go to the top electoral court for resolution.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO KNOW WHO WINS?
The full review process can take weeks. Peru’s electoral authorities said an official winner was expected to be declared by July 15, though the result could become clearer sooner if one candidate begins to pull away as reviewed votes are added to the count.
ARE CONTESTED BALLOTS DIFFERENT FROM ANNULMENT REQUESTS?
Yes. Aside from the more than 1,600 polling stations flagged for review because of issues with tally sheets, Sanchez’s party filed four separate nullity petitions seeking to annul results from about 2,400 polling stations.
One filing from Sanchez’s team sought to invalidate results from about 1,750 polling stations mostly in Lima, while three others covered about 650 polling stations abroad, mainly in the United States.
An election panel threw out those requests on Friday because his party did not include all of the required paperwork.
The party cannot resubmit its requests and cannot submit new ones, as the deadline has passed, according to authorities.
(Reporting by Alexander Villegas; Additional reporting by Marco Aquino; Editing by Mark Porter)
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