Castillo leads Fujimori by nine points, according to a new survey

Pedro Castillo is nine points ahead of his rival Keiko Fujimori in the second round of Peru's presidential elections, according to a new poll published on Sunday, five weeks before the vote.

The poll by pollster Ipsos published on the Sunday programme Cuarto Poder gave Castillo 43% of the vote to Fujimori's 34%.

The numbers are very similar to another poll by Datum this week which gave a difference of ten points, with 44% for the far-left candidate and 34% for the daughter and political heir of former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), candidate of the authoritarian right-wing Fuerza Popular party.

The gap between the two candidates for the Peruvian presidency has been reduced by two percentage points compared to the previous Ipsos poll, carried out a fortnight ago, between 15 and 16 April.

This reduction is explained by the fact that Fujimori has increased her intention to vote by three points compared to the previous poll by the same company, while Castillo has increased by one point.

The increases for both candidates come from undecided voters, who have dropped to 10% and have preferred Fujimori more than Castillo, especially among women, according to the president of Ipsos, Alfredo Torres.

As a result, the "antivoto" against Fujimori, made up of voters who say that under no circumstances would they vote for her, has fallen from 55% to 50%, while in the case of Castillo this figure has risen slightly to 36%.

Among Fujimori's voters, 60% say they will vote for her because she is the lesser of the two, while 38% of Castillo's voters will support him because they see him as the lesser of the two.

The poll also showed that 36% of Peruvians want radical changes to the neoliberal economic model that has been consolidated in Peru since Alberto Fujimori's term in office, as promoted by Castillo, who calls for the nationalisation of natural resource exploitation.

Fifty-four per cent prefer moderate changes and only 11 per cent prefer continuism, which has so far been advocated by Keiko Fujimori, who is seeking the presidency in order to vindicate the legacy of her father, whom she has promised to pardon from the 25-year prison sentence he is serving for crimes against humanity.

The poll was conducted on 30 April among 1,204 adults nationwide in Peru, with a margin of error of 2.8%.
More than 25 million Peruvians are called to the polls on 6 June to elect their next president for the 2021-2026 term, who will take office on 28 July, the 200th anniversary of Peru's independence.