Sawt Falasteen - Peru election chief tells AFP count could take two weeks

Bernardo Pachas said Tuesday that "it could take anywhere from two weeks to the end of the month" to know whether conservative Keiko Fujimori or leftist Roberto Sanchez had won.

With about 18 million ballots counted, Sanchez was ahead by about 20,000 votes and the race was still too close to call.

Many voters had hoped the election would draw a line under years of political chaos that has seen a string of presidents jailed, deposed and impeached.

Whoever is elected will be the ninth president in a decade.

But the result shows the Andean nation remains deeply divided between the populous coast and the more rural, Indigenous south.

Fujimori, 51, is hoping to ride a wave of support for right-wing candidates who have won recent elections in Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador with a tough-on-crime message.

Sanchez, a 57-year-old former psychologist, surged late in the race to reach the runoff.

He has moderated his early calls for "radical change" and told AFP he wants a "respectful" relationship with US President Donald Trump.

The first round presidential election result took more than 30 days to complete.

T.Ibrahim--SF-PST