Wall Street man wins Peru election

Ex-Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has won the majority of votes with all ballots counted in Peru’s photo-finish presidential election, but the final result will depend on a handful of challenged ballots.

With votes finally counted four days after the run-off election, Kuczynski had 50.12 per cent to 49.88 per cent for his rival, Keiko Fujimori, electoral authorities said.

But the gap between them was so small that an electoral court must settle the matter of the 0.2 per cent of ballots that have been challenged for smudges, improper markings or other issues before a winner can be declared.

The electoral court is working its way through the challenged results sheets one by one, but there is no clear timeline for how long the process will take.

Pollsters and statisticians say it would be all but impossible for Fujimori, the daughter of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori to pull off a victory.

“Can Peru beat Germany 7-3 in a football match? It’s not mathematically impossible, but it’s not going to happen,” said Farid Matuk, the former head of the national statistics institute.
Kuczynski, 77, proceeded cautiously, sounding a triumphant note but stopping short of declaring victory.

“There’s a lot of work to do. It’s still not completely official, but we’re close,” he told journalists outside his house in an upscale neighbourhood of the capital, Lima.

Taking to Twitter, he wrote: “Thank you Peru! It’s time to work together for the future of our country.”

He called for unity in a speech from his campaign headquarters, as he faced the prospect of working with a Congress where Fujimori’s party won a majority in the first-round in April.

Congratulations for Kuczynski have began pouring in from around the Latin America.

Peru’s outgoing President Ollanta Humala extended his best wishes to the president-elect, as did Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet and Colombian leader Juan Manuel Santos.

Fujimori, for her part, did not immediately comment. A spokesman earlier said she would fight to the end.

Electoral authorities had been stuck waiting for seven results sheets to arrive from a remote valley in the Amazon rainforest.

The results were being transported partly by river, with a security escort to keep them safe from drug traffickers and guerrilla fighters hiding out in the region.

Peru, a nation of 31 million, is one of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies, and both candidates are right-leaning, market-friendly, US-educated.

Famed for its ancient Incan cities and its fusion-fueled cuisine, symbolised by the refreshing raw fish dish ceviche, the country is a major exporter of gold, copper — and cocaine.

Economic growth slowed under outgoing leftist President from 6.5 per cent when he took office in 2011 to 3.3 per cent last year.

Pundits say Fujimori who was vying to become Peru’s first woman president and led for most of the race, was damaged by a late surge of “anti-fujimorismo.”