Peru's presidential election wait enters 4th day

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru's presidential election went down to the wire, with the final ballots trickling in from abroad and frayed nerves reaching the breaking point as the wait entered its fourth day on Thursday.

With 99.5 percent of the polling stations counted, front-runner Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was topping rival Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned ex-President Alberto Fujimori, by a 50.1 to 49.9 margin.

Disputes are common in Peru, where voting is mandatory and any observer can lodge a complaint, but they've never proven decisive in past elections and a losing candidate almost always ends up conceding defeat before they are resolved.

Both candidates have remained largely silent while awaiting final results of Peru's tightest presidential race since 1962, a contest that ended in a military coup.

The 77-year-old Kuczynski was once far behind, but rose by reminding voters of Alberto Fujimori's ties to the corruption, organized crime and death squads for which he's serving a 25-year prison sentence.