Peru’s presidential race is tightening a week before the runoff between Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori, according to two opinion polls published Sunday ahead of a key candidates’ debate.
In a vote simulation conducted by Ipsos and published in El Comercio newspaper, leftist front-runner Castillo would get 51.1% in the June 6 election compared with 48.9% for Fujimori, within the poll’s margin of error. Some 20% of voters were still undecided. The poll of 1,517 people was conducted on May 28 and had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.
A separate survey by Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (IEP) published in La Republica newspaper also showed a statistical tie between the candidates.
Those who intend to vote for Castillo fell to 40.3% from 44.8% over the last week, while support for Fujimori grew to 38.3% from 34.4% compared to May 23. Only 6.3% of voters reported being undecided. IEP poll of 1,227 people was conducted by phone May 27-28 and had a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.
Castillo, a former school teacher running with a self-proclaimed Marxist party feared by many investors, is promising to seek more from multinational miners to spend on education and health.
Peru’s stock market on Friday posted its largest gains in months and its bonds and currency also rallied as Castillo’s lead narrowed.
Fujimori, a former lawmaker who’s narrowly lost two previous runoffs and has been charged with graft, is running on a law and order platform that often invokes her father Alberto Fujimori’s presidency that was marked by clashes with the left-wing rebel group Shining Path.
