Uncertainty in Peru: exit polls predict a very tight scenario between Keiko Fujimori and Pedro Castillo

After a day without complexities to constitute the electoral tables, with a register of more than 25 million qualified, the Peruvians decided who will be their next president. Now the scrutiny has begun, a process that could be delayed if, as the polls predict, the outcome ends up being really tight.

It is because with conflicting projects, the rural schoolteacher and the daughter of the imprisoned former president Alberto Fujimori are tied in the polls in this election, after a campaign marked by uncertainty and exacerbation of fears., which on Friday brought the dollar to a record 3.9 soles.

According to Ipsos Peru’s exit results, Keiko Fujimori (Fuerza Popular) got 50.3%, while Pedro Castillo (Peru Free) 49.7%. The poll clearly marks the advantage of the Fuerza Popular candidate in Lima, with more than 68% and the support of the left-wing candidate inside the country, where – again according to this consultation – she would obtain more than 80% voices.

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Castillo organized a family breakfast in the morning in the covered courtyard of his house in the hamlet of Chugur, in the northern region of Cajamarca, and went to vote at noon in the nearby town of Tacabamba, followed through the streets by hundreds. inhabitants.

“I made a decision, I will not be in Lima for the health of my parents,” announced the candidate after voting at the Simón Herrera school, canceling his plan to go to the capital to wait for the results. “We will be respectful as soon as there are minutes “of the scrutiny of the ballotThe 51-year-old candidate also indicated, wearing a brown coat and a white hat with a high crown, typical of the peasants of Cajamarca.

Keiko Fujimori, who attended a family breakfast on the slopes of a hill in a poor neighborhood in the Lima neighborhood of San Juan de Lurigancho, He also indicated that he will recognize the results. “From now on, I can say that whatever the result, I will respect the popular will as it should be,” promised the 46-year-old candidate, who is playing for the third time the possibility of becoming the first president of Peru.

The two candidates spent the last hours with their families, after closing their campaign Thursday in Lima in rallies with hundreds of followers crowded, as the pandemic did not grant a truce. Peru this week recorded the highest death rate in the world from covid-19, after adjusting the figures, and has accumulated nearly two million infections and more than 180,000 deaths.

Castillo is concentrating his support in rural areas of “deep Peru”, such as his native Cajamarca, but some Peruvians fear that the country will become a new Venezuela who will vote for Fujimori as “the lesser evil”.

Whoever wins will face a huge challenge, as they will need to take urgent action to overcome the pandemic, economic recession and political instability, in the face of a fragmented Congress, corruption and mismanagement.

If Fujimori wins, “it is not an easy task, given the suspicion that his name and that of his family arouse in large areas. We will have to calm the markets quickly, and generate measures that allow reactivation, “political scientist Jessica Smith told AFP.

And if Castillo wins, he will have to “show independent leadership” from his party leaders and “consolidate a parliamentary majority that will allow him to carry out his ambitious program”, he added. .

Meanwhile, analyst Luis Pásara told AFP that “it will take time to calm the waters, as the polarization is fierce and there is an environment of social conflict”.

The new president will take office on July 28, the day Peru commemorates the bicentenary of its independence, replacing the interim centrist president Francisco Sagasti, who urged his compatriots “to respect scrupulously the will expressed at the ballot box”.

The first official results will be known around 11 p.m. local (0400 GMT Monday).

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