Peruvian left-wing candidate gaining ground in presidential race, poll shows

LIMA, March 16 (Reuters) – Peruvian left-wing candidate Alfonso Lopez Chau is closing in on the two right-wing candidates leading the race just weeks before the presidential election, a poll showed.

• Lopez Chau, an economist and former central bank director from the left-wing party Juntos por el Peru, rose to 6.5% of the vote from 5.1% in the prior poll.

• The frontrunners, Rafael Lopez Aliaga and Keiko Fujimori netted 11.4% and 10.9% of the vote respectively in a Datum Internacional survey.

• Those numbers could imply a technical tie within the poll’s margin of error of +/-2.5%

• The survey was conducted March 6-10 and released Sunday on America Television.

• Retired air force general and former intelligence director Wolfgang Crozo placed fourth at 5.1%.

• Fujimori, running for a fourth time, is the daughter of late ex-president Alberto Fujimori, who was imprisoned 16 years for human rights abuses.

• The number of Peruvians undecided or that plan not to vote declined to 36.7%, from 38.5% priorly, still elevated compared with the 18% registered at a similar stage before the 2021 presidential election.

POLITICAL CONTEXT

• Peru, which has experienced constant political instability with eight presidents since 2018, will hold elections on April 12.

• No first-round winner is anticipated and a run-off vote is expected in June.

• The new president will assume power at the end of July.

• The world’s third-biggest copper producer with a heavily mining-reliant economy has thus far shown resilience to political shocks.

• Latest official data showed that Peru’s economy expanded 3.54% year-on-year in January with an increased production of copper, zinc, gold and silver.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez; editing by Cassandra Garrison)