Leftist Castillo polling ahead of Fujimori for Peru presidency

LIMA: Far-left labor unionist Pedro Castillo is ahead of right-wing populist Keiko Fujimori among voters before Peru's June 6 presidential runoff, according to a poll released Sunday.

Schoolteacher Castillo has garnered 43 percent of voting intention, while corruption-accused Fujimori -- daughter of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori -- has 34 percent of voters' preference, according to the Ipsos poll.

The poll showed that 13 percent of voters said they would cast blank or null ballots, and 10 percent did not specify their voting intention.

Castillo added one percentage point and Fujimori three compared to the Ipsos poll conducted between April 15 and 16.

"We take it with humility, with serenity. We see that finally the numbers and trends are starting to move," Fujimori told the Sunday program Cuarto Poder.

"We understand that this poll is prior to the debate and the meeting in Chota, there is still a long way to go. It is important to call on the people who are joining us to continue helping us," she said. Ipsos polled 1,204 people on April 30, with a margin of error of 2.8 percent.

Castillo, 51, a virtual unknown until 2017, is from the Free Peru party. He led the first round of voting with 18.92 percent.

Fujimori, who leads the Popular Force, came second in the April 11 vote, which had a record 18 candidates, with 13.4 percent.

Vote counting is nearly complete, with 99 percent tallied, but the National Jury of Elections still must officially proclaim both candidates have passed to the runoff.

Peru has been in recession since the second quarter of last year after coronavirus lockdowns shuttered businesses and crippled the all-important tourism sector.

Whoever is sworn in on July 28 will be Peru's fifth president in three years, after three fell within days of each other in November 2020 amid protests that left two people dead and hundreds injured.