Peru's Castillo closes in on victory in presidential election [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

By Marcelo Rochabrun and Marco Aquino

Posted on June 10, 2021



FILE PHOTO: Peruvians await presidential election results

LIMA (Reuters) – Pedro Castillo maintained a slim lead over rival Keiko Fujimori in Peru’s presidential election on Thursday, with almost all votes counted, but with a chunk of contested votes yet to be scrutinized by electoral authorities.

Castillo, an elementary school teacher and political novice who won widespread grassroots backing for pledges to rewrite the constitution and redistribute wealth, had 50.2% of the vote, maintaining a 0.4 percentage point lead over right-wing Fujimori, or 71,254 votes.

Some 300,000 contested votes are being scrutinized by an electoral jury, a process that will take several days to complete and could delay the announcement of who will be the next president to take over from interim leader Francisco Sagasti at the end of July.

However, analysts said that was unlikely to be enough to change the outcome, and many in the region were already celebrating Castillo’s victory.

More:
https://www.metro.us/perus-castillo-closes-in/