Sources from the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONP) stated that a significant number of polling centers and voting tables began at the scheduled election time, which will last 10 hours.

  At 5:00 p.m. local time, the doors of schools, universities, and other venues housing polling stations will close, but, as usual, they will continue serving voters who had entered the premises by that time.

  Before the start of voting, the candidates, Keiko Fujimori, of the neoliberal Popular Force (FP) party, and Roberto Sanchez, of the progressive Together for Peru (JP) party, began their activities for this crucial day.

  According to her schedule, very early, before dawn, Fujimori held a coordination meeting with the representatives who would be working at the polling stations in the municipality of Villa El Salvador.

   Sanchez, for his part, began his day early in his hometown of Huaral, 82 kilometers from Lima. He started the day by greeting journalists, accompanied by his parents, his wife, and his two young daughters, with whom he attended a Catholic mass, after which he traveled to Lima.

  The day was preceded by the latest private polls, mock elections that all indicated a virtual tie between the candidates, with the majority of those who cast blank or invalid ballots or declared themselves undecided ultimately determining the outcome.

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