Former investment banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski had a 0.32 percentage point lead over rival Keiko Fujimori in Peru's cliffhanger presidential election on Tuesday as votes continued to be tallied two days after polling stations closed. Ballots from Peruvians living in the United States and Europe were still trickling in and could decide the election. A partial count suggested they would favor Kuczynski, a 77-year-old former prime minister who worked for years on Wall Street, Reuters reported. The margin between the two business-friendly candidates, now about 54,000 votes, inched up slightly in the latest update by Peru's electoral office, ONPE, on Tuesday. Preliminary results on Sunday and quick counts of sample ballots by reputable polling firms had put Kuczynski ahead of Fujimori, the daughter of jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori, by about one percentage point. "We're optimistic," Kuczynski told reporters as he headed to a country club in Lima's financial district to work out. With the race so close, Fujimori, who has largely been out of the public eye since Sunday, is not likely to accept defeat unless determined by a final count, a person close to the candidate said on condition of anonymity. TV images showed Fujimori smiling and waving from a car. With 96 percent of the ballots counted two days after the election, Kuczynski won 50.16 percent of valid votes compared with Fujimori's 49.84 percent, according to ONPE. More ballots than that - 97.9 percent - had been processed, but about 300,000 were being questioned due to lack of clarity and would be settled by local electoral panels. "We have to be very cautious," said Mariano Cucho, the head of ONPE, in broadcast comments. He said a full ballot count will probably not be finished until the weekend. Ballots, mostly from Peruvians living in the United States and Europe, were still arriving, according to ONPE. A count of about half of U.S. votes showed Kuczynski with a double-digit lead over of Fujimori, and a partial count of votes from Europe showed a similarly wide lead for Kuczynski.
