Peruvian court sets May 15 deadline for counting votes in presidential race

LIMA, Peru (AP) 鈥� Peru鈥檚 electoral tribunal on Monday set a deadline for officials to finish counting votes and name the candidates advancing to the second round in the nation’s highly contested .

The tribunal said that Peru鈥檚 elections agency ONPE has until May 15 to publish full voting tallies and say which two candidates will participate in the second round.

More than 30 candidates participated in and the top two contenders must go to a runoff on June 7, because none of the candidates garnered more than half the votes.

However, a razor thin margin currently separates the second and third place candidates, and the election was blighted with irregularities that forced authorities to open some voting stations in the capital city of Lima for an additional day.

Authorities in Peru are still sifting through tally sheets that are arriving from remote areas and also from the nation鈥檚 consulates overseas. Hundreds of tally sheets have been challenged by electoral observers and must now be reviewed by officials.

With 93.5% of votes counted, conservative leader is leading the election with 17.05% of the vote, and looks almost certain to enter the June runoff.

Roberto S谩nchez, a nationalist congressman and former minister , comes in second place so far with 12% of the votes, but is closely followed by the ultraconservative former mayor of Lima, Rafael L贸pez Aliaga, with 11.91% of the votes.

L贸pez Aliaga has challenged the partial results of the election saying, without providing any evidence, that a 鈥済igantic fraud鈥� was committed by Peruvian officials, and calling for a 鈥渃omplementary鈥� election, in which hundreds of thousands of Peruvians who did not cast their ballots on April 12 can participate.

A European Union electoral observation mission said last week that while the election had experienced logistical problems there were no signs of a fraudulent vote count.

L贸pez Aliaga has focused on a hard-line security agenda during the campaign, proposing to build prisons in the country鈥檚 , allowing judges to conceal their identities and expelling foreigners who are living illegally in Peru, but has not promised major changes to the country’s free market economy.

He cuts a stark contrast with S谩nchez, a former commerce minister who has promised to make major economic changes that include a dramatic expansion of government spending, an extensive reform of the tax system and partial nationalization of Peru鈥檚 natural resources. The leftist candidate, who has become known for wearing a wide-brimmed traditional hat during his public appearances, also said he would remove the director of Peru’s central bank early in his campaign, but then modified his position saying he would respect the bank’s autonomy.

While both of these candidates have garnered fewer votes in the first round of the election than Fujimori, either one of them is expected to have a good chance at defeating the conservative political leader in a runoff.

Fujimori, the daughter of a former president who was jailed for human rights abuses, has been a presidential candidate in three previous occasions. She has advanced to the second round of the elections three times, but was unable to win any of these contests.

The winner will be Peru鈥檚 and will replace , who was elected interim president in February. He replaced another interim leader who was just four months into his term.

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