PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS (91.5 PERCENT

UNCLAS LIMA 001508 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PINR PE SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS (91.5 PERCENT COUNTED): HUMALA STILL IN LEAD, GARCIA MAINTAINING EDGE OVER FLORES REF: LIMA 1450 ¶1. As of 8:42 local time on 4/19, the Office of National Electoral Processes (ONPE) reported that it has counted 91.532 percent of the vote tally sheets (which normally have no more than 200 votes per Acta, or tally sheet.) The results to date are: -- Ollanta Humala 30.789 percent - 3,515,681 valid votes -- Alan Garcia 24.314 percent - 2,776,331 valid votes -- Lourdes Flores 23.690 percent - 2,705,097 valid votes ¶2. Humala remains safely in front. Around 3.8 percent of the overseas votes have been counted, with Lourdes Flores receiving 62.2 percent and Alan Garcia 8.5 percent. There are still a number of challenged tally sheets, but it may well be that when resolved the challenged tally sheets will spread out fairly evenly among the candidates. Garcia continues to maintain his lead over Flores for the second spot in the run-off, but the gap has narrowed slightly over the past couple of days. ¶3. 99.749 percent of the tally sheets have been entered into the computer, but around 8 percent still have to be validated and added to the count. Although only a fraction of a percent of the tally sheets need to be entered into the computer, the validation process is taking more time and ONPE tells us that the final count may not be ready until April 30. ¶4. In the overseas votes, Flores has been handily ahead with 58.934 percent to Garcia's 16.583 and Humala's 12.565, out of 200,856 overseas votes cast. With only 213 overseas tally sheets (out of 222 total) left to enter into the computer, it does not appear that the preference of overseas voters for Flores will by itself be enough to put her ahead of Garcia. ¶5. Updated election results can be found at www.elecciones2006.onpe.gob.pe. (Note: In the website, Actas Computadas represent the tally sheets accepted and added to the official count. Actas Procesadas are the tally sheets which have been entered into the computer, some of which are later invalidated for various reasons. End Note.) STRUBLE