Peru's presidential election too close to call, exit polls show

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LIMA Center-right economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski held a very slight edge over Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of an imprisoned former president, in two quick counts by polling firms that reviewed ballots in Peru's presidential run-off election on Sunday.

With 100 percent of sample ballots reviewed, polling firm Ipsos gave the 77-year-old Kuczynski 50.5 percent of the vote and Fujimori 49.5 percent, a technical tie.

Another pollster, GfK, gave Kuczynski 50.8 percent of valid votes to Fujimori's 49.2 percent. An exit poll by CPI, which did not do a quick count of ballots, said Fujimori was narrowly in front.

Alfredo Torres, an analyst with Ipsos, said that with only 1 percentage point separating the candidates, he could not call the election and that Peruvians should wait for official results from the electoral authority.

The first official results will be announced around 9 p.m. (2100 ET).

"An exit poll by CPI, which did not do a quick count of ballots, said Fujimori was narrowly in front.Alfredo Torres, an analyst with Ipsos, said that with only 1 percentage point separating the candidates, he could not call the election and that Peruvians should wait for official results from the electoral authority"But with the election so close, Peruvians will likely not know who their next president is until Monday.

Still, supporters of Kuczynski - known in Peru as PPK - wearing colorful headbands, cheered and celebrated as the quick-count results were announced on a large screen outside his campaign headquarters in Lima.

Fujimori, 41, a former congresswoman, had a big lead in the first round of voting in April and was ahead in most opinion polls, but her advantage melted away in the last days of the campaign, evoking memories of her close defeat to Ollanta Humala in the last presidential election in 2011.

Seeking to be the South American country's first female president, she has spent the past five years trying to broaden her appeal beyond loyalists to her father, Alberto Fujimori, who is serving a 25-year sentence for graft and human rights abuses.

She waved at supporters and flashed a victory sign after the exit polls were aired on television.

Fujimori had ousted her father's staunchest defenders from her party's congressional ticket and stepped up campaigning in provinces she lost to the left-leaning Humala in 2011. But many voters remained wary after scandals linked her new associates to money-laundering allegations.

"I voted for PPK because I don't think Keiko Fujimori would be the one governing, her father would be," said Luz Vite, 34.

Fujimori defends her team and says her party was the victim of a smear campaign before Peru's fourth democratic election since her father's authoritarian government collapsed in 2000.

While both candidates are fiscal conservatives who would maintain a free-market model in the resource-rich Andean economy, their styles and approaches differ widely.

The election pits the Fujimori family's brand of conservative populism against Kuczynski's elite background and stiff technocratic style, which has curbed his appeal in poor provinces and working-class districts.

Fujimori, who has repeatedly promised to respect democratic institutions, waged a more energetic campaign than her rival, performing regional dances in far-flung villages where she has promised to deliver tractors and portraying her rival as out of touch with struggling Peruvians.

CONCERN OVER CRIME

Many in rural provinces have fond memories of Fujimori's father, who built schools and hospitals and is credited with defeating violent Shining Path guerrillas.

She has responded to the top voter concern, crime, with a hard-line stance that includes support for the death penalty and promises to lock up the most dangerous criminals in five prisons she would build high in the Andes.

Kuczynski, a former prime minister and investment banker, has portrayed himself as honest and experienced enough to make good on promises to revive sluggish economic growth, and has captured the anti-Fujimori vote despite having endorsed her over Humala in 2011.

If he wins, Kuczynski would have to reckon with a solid majority of Fujimori's party in Congress and a leftist party that has promised not to align with either of them.

"She's ready, and deserves the chance to clear her father's name," Santiago Celez, a 70-year-old taxi driver, said of Fujimori. "Not by pardoning him (her father) as some think but by simply doing things right."

(Additional reporting by Marco Aquino and Teresa Cespedes; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Peter Cooney)