A new survey from Peru reveals that left-wing presidential hopeful Alfonso Lopez Chau is making substantial progress against the two conservative candidates currently leading the field ahead of next month’s national election.
According to polling data from Datum Internacional, Lopez Chau has increased his support to 6.5 percent, up from 5.1 percent in previous measurements. The economist and former central bank official represents the left-wing Juntos por el Peru party.
Meanwhile, the current frontrunners Rafael Lopez Aliaga and Keiko Fujimori captured 11.4 percent and 10.9 percent support respectively in the survey. Given the poll’s error margin of plus or minus 2.5 percent, these results suggest the possibility of a statistical dead heat among the top contenders.
The polling was carried out between March 6-10 and announced Sunday during programming on America Television. Retired air force general and former intelligence chief Wolfgang Crozo ranked fourth with 5.1 percent backing.
Fujimori, making her fourth presidential bid, is the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, who served a 16-year prison sentence for violations of human rights.
The survey found that 36.7 percent of Peruvian voters remain undecided or plan to abstain from voting, a decrease from the previous 38.5 percent but still significantly higher than the 18 percent recorded at the same point before Peru’s 2021 presidential contest.
Peru’s political landscape has been marked by ongoing turmoil, with eight different presidents holding office since 2018. The nation will conduct its election on April 12, with analysts predicting no candidate will secure a first-round victory, leading to a runoff election scheduled for June.
The winning candidate will take office at the end of July. Despite the political uncertainty, Peru’s economy has demonstrated stability as the world’s third-largest copper producer with significant dependence on mining operations.
Recent government statistics indicate Peru’s economy grew 3.54 percent compared to the previous year in January, driven by increased output of copper, zinc, gold and silver.
