White and null votes in Peru’s presidential elections exceed 3 million, a figure higher than the votes received by the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori, who leads the count, with an advance of 93.34% of the votes counted, according to the official scrutiny of the elections by the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE).
Between white and null votes, there are 3,142,121 votes registered, which are equivalent to 16.63% of the votes cast, while Fujimori is the candidate with the most votes with 2,685,995 votes, equivalent to 14.22% of the total, which become 17.05% valid votes, when the white and null votes are subtracted.
White votes currently reach 2,197,516, 11.63% of the total votes cast, while null votes total 944,605 votes, 5% of the total votes counted.
This situation was influenced by the range of 35 presidential candidates competing in this election, which has caused the vote to be fragmented to the point that the sum of the blank and null votes exceeds the individual vote obtained by each candidate.
Only the number of white votes is greater than 34 of the 35 candidates in contention, and the number of null votes exceeds the vote obtained by 29 presidential candidates.
Peru’s electoral law states that elections can only be annulled if the invalid votes reach two-thirds of the total votes cast.
More than 27.3 million Peruvians were summoned last Sunday to elect their national authorities for the period 2026-2031, including the Presidential, through which eight leaders have passed in the last ten years in a succession of political crises.
Election day was marked by long delays in the opening of polling stations in the capital Lima due to lack of electoral material, which did not arrive on time due to logistical problems of the company in charge of its distribution, which meant that thirteen polling stations had to open on Monday.
This fueled the allegations of fraud launched, without providing evidence, by the far-right candidate Rafael López Aliaga (Renovación Popular), while the electoral observation missions determined that these problems did not affect the outcome of the process, which they described as credible and transparent.
So far, only Fujimori has guaranteed presence in the second round to be held on June 7, whose rival will be defined in a very narrow margin between the leftist Roberto Sánchez (Together for Peru) and the ultra-conservative López Aliaga.
