It is rare for an election to be decided by the votes of citizens abroad. In fact, the winners are often announced shortly after the polls close in the main cities, even before their ballots have been counted. However, in Peru, where the second round of the presidential election took place on June 7 and where the counting of ballots continues, the duel between the far-right candidate Keiko Fujimori and her left-wing rival Roberto Sánchez is so close that the counting of some 300,000 ballots from Peruvians abroad (out of 18 million votes cast) caused a turnaround in the provisional results.
While Sánchez won inside the country (narrowly, with 50.13% of the votes), Fujimori’s large lead among the diaspora (with 64% of the votes, or 70,000 votes difference) allowed the daughter of the country’s former dictator to take the lead. Nearly 30,000 votes separate her from Sánchez (50.09%, against 49.91%).
Before declaring victory, he must wait for the recount of the ballots cast in nearly 1,500 polling stations where the count was contested. The final result is expected in mid-July, but already the controversy is growing, and voices are being heard in the country demanding that Peruvians abroad be deprived of their right to vote.
Frustration and anger
This result causes “a new fissure between Peruvians†and some wonder, “with a mixture of frustration and anger, why should someone who no longer waits in endless lines at the public hospital, who is not afraid when he goes out in the street or who no longer endures the traffic jams of Lima have the same right to decide the future of the countryâ€explain The Country America.
A recently elected deputy from the left-wing party Juntos por el Perú (“Together for Peru†), Amalia Palomino, opened the debate by demanding that Peruvians lose their right to vote after ten years of emigration, underlines Infobae. And the current president, José María Balcazar, said he was ready to propose a possible reform in this direction.
On “Someone can lose on national territory and still become president, especially because many votes abroad come from people who have lived outside the country for decades, and whose children have never even lived in Peru, and never will….
In The Country Americaa 36-year-old Peruvian residing in the United States explains that distance has not erased his feeling of belonging to the country, and that those who want to deprive him of his right to vote “don’t know what they’re talking about… :
“We contribute to the country by sending money and investing there. My parents are about to retire and want to return home. I too dream of doing it when I’m 60 or 70.â€
“Harmful and undemocratic positionsâ€
In 2025, remittances from Peruvians abroad to their country of origin reached a record $5.368 billion (11.7% more than in 2024, which is equivalent to 1.6% of GDP).
Pour Peruú21, ce “debate is unwelcomeâ€. “Some question the right to vote of Peruvians abroad, just as others had previously proposed returning to census-based suffrage – reserved for literate people or the highest taxpayers – in order to reduce the weight of the Andean South [qui vote traditionnellement à gauche]. The targets change, but not the logic: when a group votes differently from what was expected, we seek to restrict its rights as citizens. These two positions are harmful and undemocratic… adds the local daily.
In fact, Sánchez asked to cancel the votes cast in 647 polling stations in the United States, while Fujimori demanded that 7,000 votes cast in the rural areas of Puno, stronghold of the left, be canceled for alleged irregularities.
