New Delhi, June 10 -- The gap between Peru's two presidential candidates narrowed to less than 20,000 votes Tuesday with 96% of ballots counted after Sunday's runoff contest.

The winner will be the South American country's ninth president in 10 years.

Official figures showed nationalist congressman Roberto Sanchez with 50.055% of votes, while conservative politician Keiko Fujimori had 49.945%. The electoral body has counted more than 17.8 million votes.

Fujimori, the daughter of a disgraced former president, and Sanchez, an ally of an imprisoned ex-president, beat 33 other candidates in the initial vote in April, but neither earned even 20% of support. Electoral authorities took more than a month to declare them winners of that contest...