LIMA, Peru —
Election officials in Peru said Saturday they are launching an audit of the first round of the presidential election, three weeks after a vote marred by irregularities.
With more than 97 percent of ballots counted, radical left-wing candidate Roberto Sanchez (12 percent) and ultraconservative Rafael Lopez Aliaga (11.9 percent) are neck-and-neck, separated by about 27,500 votes.
They both trail right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori (17.12 percent), and only the top two candidates advance to the June 7 runoff.
Thousands of tally sheets have been challenged and are under review.
The National Jury of Elections (JNE) will carry out a "full and exhaustive IT audit of the first-round electoral process" to be conducted by a committee of independent experts from Peru and international specialists, the electoral authority said in a statement.
The move aims to strengthen "transparency, integrity and reliability of the electoral results," JNE said.
Election day was marred by logistical problems in the capital, preventing tens of thousands of people from voting until the following day.
A slow ballot count followed, during which boxes of ballots were found in a Lima dumpster.
Aliaga has called for a new vote to be held in Lima, a city he was once mayor of, but JNE officials rejected his request.
Voting is mandatory in Peru, where more than 27 million Peruvians were called on to select new leadership.