Peru's presidential election is mired in uncertainty more than a week after polling day, with no clear second candidate yet confirmed to face frontrunner Keiko Fujimori in the June 7 run-off, as calls grow for the country's top electoral official to resign.

The general election was held on a Sunday but was extended by a day to address serious logistical problems, primarily in Lima, the capital. With 93.3 percent of ballots counted as of Friday, Fujimori — a conservative and daughter of former authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori — held a firm lead with 17 percent of the vote. Behind her, leftist Roberto Sanchez and ultraconservative former Lima Mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga remained locked in an extremely tight contest for second place, separated by roughly 13,000 votes. Sanchez held 12.0 percent to Lopez Aliaga's 11.9 percent. Final results could take up to two weeks, according to Peruvian election-monitoring group Transparencia.

The drawn-out count has triggered a political crisis around Peru's National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) and its head, Piero Corvetto. Business leaders, including Jorge Zapata of the influential business chamber CONFIEP, and lawmakers from across the political spectrum have called on Corvetto to step down, arguing that a replacement should oversee the second round. Peru's top electoral court, the National Jury of Elections, went further, filing a criminal complaint with prosecutors against Corvetto for alleged violations of voting rights. Lopez Aliaga, one of the trailing candidates, has demanded a suspension of the count altogether, citing fraud — allegations Corvetto has flatly denied. European Union election observers have also said they found no evidence of fraud.

Adding to the tension, police discovered materials from four polling stations on a public road in Lima on Thursday, though ONPE said the votes from those stations had already been recorded. About five percent of all ballots have been flagged for review due to missing information or errors in polling station records, and will require assessment by a special electoral jury before being included in the final tally.

The prolonged uncertainty has rattled investor confidence in Peru, a major copper-producing country in South America that has experienced a decade of intense political instability. The crisis highlights the fragility of electoral institutions in a country where no president has completed a full term without impeachment, resignation, or prosecution in recent years. How the count concludes — and whether Corvetto remains in his post — will shape the credibility of the June run-off.