The political coalition Together for Peru seeks to secure its participation in the presidential runoff by defending the popular vote . Leftist leaders denounce pressure from powerful groups that are allegedly trying to alter the official results to benefit sectors linked to Fujimorism .

The Venceremos Electoral Alliance expressed its full support for Roberto Sánchez's candidacy following the recent elections. According to the organization's statement, it is imperative to monitor the official vote count to prevent corrupt interests from disregarding the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box.

The strategy of this political union is not limited to the electoral arena, but also proposes profound institutional changes. According to the Venceremos Alliance, "we will continue fighting for fundamental changes, promoting the national agenda of a Constituent Assembly and a second agrarian reform ," which is necessary today.

Left-wing representatives propose the industrialization of the country and a redistribution of wealth to combat poverty. These measures aim to lift Peruvians out of the crisis through an economic model that prioritizes the working class and sectors traditionally neglected by the state .

Furthermore, they raise the need to renegotiate contracts with large companies so that resources benefit the national population. According to the leaders, the priority should be strengthening health and education services , which have been completely neglected following successive political crises and failed government administrations .

The progressive bloc maintains that the country faces a severe institutional crisis that has led to constant instability recently. According to its leaders, overcoming the economic and social problems will not be possible under a Fujimori regime , which they blame for the current precarious employment situation .

The union of these political forces seeks to consolidate a front that represents the most vulnerable sectors of the country. The intention is to guarantee transparency in the processes of auditing the ballots before the relevant authorities and to prevent any attempt at manipulation in the final vote count .

In a recent strategic meeting, Ronald Atencio and Roberto Sánchez reaffirmed their commitment to unity in the face of challenges. According to Atencio, it is their duty to defend Peruvian democracy because the enemy wants to seize the power that the people legitimately granted them.

The grassroots mobilization seeks to ensure that electoral institutions act with complete transparency and without external pressure. The ultimate goal is to guarantee respect for the popular vote and achieve a second round against Fujimorism with full citizen support and legitimacy.

Leftist candidate Roberto Sánchez, with a platform that vindicates the detained former president Pedro Castillo, hopes to advance to the second round of elections in Peru, a place he is contesting vote by vote with the far-right candidate Rafael López Aliaga, while the conservative Keiko Fujimori leads the count.

The candidate and president of the Together for Peru party defines himself as the “Castillista presidential candidate.” He seeks to rehabilitate, hat and all, the image of former president Castillo, who governed the country between 2021 and 2022, and is currently serving a prison sentence for conspiracy to commit rebellion, charges he denies.

That is precisely one of his central campaign promises: to free Castillo —whom he considers the victim of a “coup plot”— to recover the Government “for the people” and to create a new Constitution.

“The time has come for the true refounding of the nation: a sovereign, just nation built from the foundations of the Peruvian people,” says Sánchez .

Sánchez, 57, studied Social Psychology at the National University of San Marcos in Lima and worked as an individual and group psychotherapist in the 1990s. He has experience in public administration at the Ministry of Health and other areas of the Peruvian government, as well as a private consultant, according to his professional profile .

He was Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism during the Castillo government, from whom he has explicit support, and was elected deputy in the 2021 elections for the period until 2026.

In a context of fragmented voting and with many unknowns, the candidate of Together for Peru has sought to capture the rural vote, a segment that was key to overcoming the initial disadvantage in the vote count.

In his first press conference after the vote, after the Ipsos/Peru21/Latina exit poll placed him in second place (in a technical tie with López Aliaga and Jorge Nieto), he promised to travel to "all the towns to call them to the refounding of the homeland."

He added that if they advance to the second round, "as a social movement of the provincial left," they will promote a Constituent Assembly based on equal rights.

Sánchez also stated that his priorities will be combating poverty and bringing modernization to all parts of the country. He further reiterated that his electoral platform includes nationalizing natural resources "that belong to the people" and drafting a new law to protect informal miners.

According to a report from the online exchange house Kambista, the dollar started the session on Tuesday, April 14, on an upward trend, reaching S/3.415 in the interbank market, amid the uncertainty generated by a changing electoral context (currently around S/3.3860, according to Bloomberg).

“In this scenario, the sol stands apart from the behavior of other currencies in the region , which tend to strengthen against the dollar , in line with a downward DXY (-0.34%),” the report clarifies.

What happened? While the dollar fell yesterday , the exchange rate opened lower that morning and rose during the session, causing a drop, but less than the opening price. Now, however, after the quick count results from Ipsos and Transparencia , the dollar appears to be on the rise.

“The changes in the results as the official tally of ballots progresses, coupled with the IPSOS quick count published yesterday, have altered market expectations regarding which candidates will advance to the second round. This is putting upward pressure on the dollar, in an environment that remains highly volatile and subject to further movements as more information becomes available,” explained Fernando Ruiz, CEO of Kambista.

Also, on the international stage, the US PPI stood at 0.5% month-on-month, below the forecast of 1.1% and the previous figure of 0.7%, suggesting less pressure for a tightening of monetary policy .

“This cooling reduces the dollar’s ​​momentum globally, while in commodities, WTI crude oil fell 3.45% amid reports of a possible resumption of talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan. Meanwhile, gold declined 1.15% and copper 0.18%,” stated Iván Esquivel, Compliance Analyst at Kambista.

Furthermore, at the local level, uncertainty surrounding the second round is sustaining demand for dollars, with investors avoiding taking risky positions while awaiting greater clarity.

“Today, S/ 7,101.3 million in certificates of deposit and deposits with the Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCRP) are due , in addition to S/ 200 million in currency swaps. In this context, the Central Bank will have to evaluate the renewal of these operations to manage exchange rate volatility,” Esquivel concluded.

However, as is known, according to the quick count results from Ipsos and Transparencia, Roberto Sánchez may be closer to the second round , although they highlight a virtual tie among four candidates. This showed a different result than that expected by the polling firm Datum, which gave Rafael López Aliaga a greater margin of victory.

After midday, the ONPE results were tallying mostly rural votes, as Metropolitan Lima was nearing completion, with over 90% of the count finished. Keiko Fujimori was leading in some regions and Roberto Sánchez in others, while López Aliaga was only leading in Lima. Sánchez had been gaining ground in the polls, moving from behind Carlos Álvarez to fourth place behind Jorge Nieto. More than 20,000 ballots still needed to be processed.

Popular Renewal insists on the non-existent fraud and has submitted more than 100 requests to the National Elections Board (JNE) to annul polling stations in the department of Cajamarca .

The party of former Lima mayor Rafael López Aliaga is seeking to have all votes in cities such as Chota, Cochabamba, San Juan, Magdalena, Huambos, Pedro Gálvez, Baños del Inca, and Chetilla completely annulled. Based on a review of each ballot that they are trying to annul, Infobae determined that a total of 22,631 votes are involved.

López Aliaga received a low number of votes at all polling stations . In most of these stations, Roberto Sánchez , the candidate for Juntos por el Perú, garnered more support and is neck and neck with Keiko Fujimori for a place in the second round .

For example, at one polling station, Sánchez obtained 100 votes, while López Aliaga did not exceed 10.

In some polling stations that are being challenged, Fujimori won , while in a few others, the candidate of the Good Government Party, Jorge Nieto , won .

The arguments of the Popular Renewal representatives are questionable . In some polling stations, they seek to have the results annulled because the number "0" was not placed when a party did not receive any votes; however, they challenge other polling stations precisely because that number was placed in the party boxes.

Another argument used by the sky-blue party to challenge polling stations en masse is that the signatures of the polling station members extended beyond the box, that the station was supposedly sealed incorrectly, that the polling station was set up minutes before 7:00 a.m., or that it was not specified whether the time corresponded to am or pm.

Incredibly, they are asking the Special Electoral Jury to apply article 363 of the Organic Law of Elections, which empowers these bodies to declare the nullity of a polling station "when there has been fraud."

“Therefore, I request that our request be declared founded and consequently that the challenged document be declared NULL, and that the votes it contains in favor of any political party not be counted,” is the request that is repeated in all the requests for annulment from Popular Renewal.

The race for second place in Peru's presidential election will be decided vote by vote: Rafael López Aliaga and Roberto Sánchez are separated by only 9,365 votes, with more than 5,000 ballots still under review and deliberations pending in the Special Electoral Tribunals. This minimal difference keeps the name of the candidate who will face Keiko Fujimori in the second round in suspense, a situation that could be resolved once the ballots from abroad are counted, where López Aliaga has more support than Sánchez.

The provisional count by the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) has reached 92.961% of the tally sheets. López Aliaga , candidate for Popular Renewal and former mayor of Lima, has 1,869,844 votes (11.919%), while Roberto Sánchez of Together for Peru, former minister during the Pedro Castillo administration, has 1,879,201 votes (11.978%). Fujimori , leader of Popular Force, leads the election with 2,677,211 votes , equivalent to 17.065% of the valid ballots, and his place in the second round is already secured.

The outcome between López Aliaga and Sánchez hinges on the remaining 1,512 tally sheets —equivalent to 1.630% of the total—and the 5,020 observed tally sheets (5.411%), whose validity is still under review by the Special Electoral Tribunals. The result of this process will not only determine Fujimori's opponent but could also alter the parliamentary balance and the immediate political landscape.