Peru’s presidential runoff is too close to call, according to an exit poll released by Ipsos, with a slight lead for investor favorite Keiko Fujimori but well within the margin of error.
Fujimori had 50.3% support versus 49.7% for Pedro Castillo, a former school teacher from the Peruvian highlands who ran with a leftwing alliance, according to the poll by Ipsos, which has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Ipsos releases a quick count at 10 p.m. local time while official results will begin to trickle in later in the evening.
The winner will be sworn in on July 28, and will take over a country of 32 million people that is struggling to emerge from one of the worst periods in its history. Peru has suffered the world’s highest death rate from the pandemic as well as a deeper economic slump than every other major economy in the Americas.
The nation has also endured a bout of political volatility, chaos and scandal over the last year, and the next president will be the nation’s fourth leader since November.
