LIMA, Peru — Embattled President Alberto Fujimori held a narrow lead over challenger Alejandro Toledo in Peru's presidential vote Sunday, according to projections by pollsters on an election day marked by tension and allegations of irregularities and potential fraud.
Fujimori had 47.3% of the vote and Toledo had 42.6%, with the rest split among seven other candidates, according to a survey of a representative sample of ballots by the Apoyo polling firm. Another projection, by the CPI firm, showed Fujimori leading 48.2% to 40.9%. The numbers suggested that Toledo, a Stanford-educated economist from an impoverished indigenous family, would deny the president 50% of the vote and force a runoff election.
That would be a resounding blow to Fujimori, who has dominated Peruvian politics during the past decade. But the first official results were not expected until late Sunday night.
"There is a reason to celebrate tonight: the dawning of a new democracy in Peru," Toledo told a roaring crowd a few blocks from the presidential palace. "Tomorrow will be a new dawn for this Peru of ours."
But later, Toledo expressed suspicion because earlier exit polls had showed him in the lead. The election is a crucial test of Peru's democratic system, with likely repercussions for troubled democracies throughout the Andean region. Peruvian and foreign election observers said the campaign was marred by biased media coverage, harassment of opposition candidates and such dirty tricks as the alleged forgery of about a million voter registration signatures.
Election monitors did not report systematic or widespread fraud Sunday. The chief of an election monitoring mission sent by the Organization of American States, Eduardo Stein, described his overall impression of the process as "basically positive."
But the first accusations of misconduct surfaced by midmorning when Transparencia, an electoral watchdog organization, announced two cases of Fujimori operatives found with boxes of pre-marked ballots.
"There have been many irregularities," said Percy Medina of Transparencia. The number of problems with the election was unprecedented, according to officials with the group.
Fujimori, meanwhile, dismissed any notion of potential fraud.
"There is a whole system of control in place so that this does not occur," the president told reporters Sunday morning. "The possibility of fraud does not exist."
