LIMA – Peruvian left-wing candidate Pedro Castillo is set to win the Andean country’s presidential election in the first round, although he will get a run-off vote in June with voters fragmented after a year of political and economic crisis.
The 51-year-old union leader and primary school teacher, a winner of the shock after a late surge in the polls, had 16.2% of the vote with half of the votes on the official count here. A quick score from Ipsos Peru showed how he won the race.
The level of support falls well below the majority needed to win straight, meaning that Castillo will address the candidate in second place in a vote against the principal.
The official score showed the liberal economist Hernando de Soto in second place with 13.6% and the far right’s Rafael Lopez Aliaga in third place with 12.9%. Conservative Keiko Fujimori was also in fourth place with 12.9%, but won field when votes were counted. The quick score predicted she would come second.
Because many are caught off guard by Castillo’s success, the unexpected outcome is likely to make a dent in the future leadership of the world’s second largest copper producer, where political uncertainty has plagued markets over the past few months.
Peru struggles with a new spate of COVID-19 infections with crowded hospitals, exacerbating a sense of crisis in the country, which accused one president last year and another resigned shortly afterwards amid deadly street protests .
Castillo, whose Free Party calls him a ‘socialist left’, undertook to draft the constitution to weaken the business elite and give the state a more dominant role in sectors such as mining, oil, hydropower, gas and communication.
“I am grateful to the Peruvian people for this result,” Castillo, who wore a trademark cowboy hat when he arrived on horseback to vote, told supporters. “I ask for calm until the final results.”
Second place?
The free marketer Fujimori is a deeply divided figure whose father, a former president, has been jailed for human rights violations. She herself spent time relocating over allegations that she received $ 1.2 million from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which she denies.
Hernando de Soto is a strong supporter of free markets and will continue to spend to strengthen the economy, while Lopez Aliaga is a hotel and railway magnate and a member of Opus Dei is often compared to Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro.
Celebrations in Castillo’s hometown of Cajamarca, in the northern highlands of Peru, continued into the night. The left has risen late from the back of the leading group of candidates, with polls showing he has won strong support in Peru’s five poorest regions.
In addition to the promise to tear up the 27-year-old constitution, a key demand of the young protesters who launched anti-government protests last year, he said he would keep his teacher’s salary and reduce that of lawmakers.
In the ballot, Peruvians also vote for the 130-seat congress, which looks set to remain very fragmented with about ten parties apparently reaching the threshold for representation in the legislature, but not one with a clear majority.
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