MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori likely candidates for Peru's presidential runoff

Keiko Fujimori seems on course for the runoff against Chavist Castillo

Ultra-leftist candidate Pedro Castillo of the Peru Libre party and perennial conservative contender Keiko Fujimori looked poised to advance to the runoff after Peru's National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) had counted 93.479% of the votes.

Although these results are still preliminary, Castillo was visibly ahead with 19.056% of the votes, followed by Keiko Fujimori from Fuerza Popular with 13.326%.

At this point, Hernando de Soto of Go Ahead Country (Avanza País) had 11,709% in a technical tie for third place with Rafael López Aliaga of Popular Renewal (Renovación Popular) with 11,706%. It seemed unlikely either of them would be able to topple Fujimori from the second round on June 6.

Yonhy Lescano (Acción Popular) had 9.118% of the votes; Verónica Mendoza (Juntos por el Perú) 7.803%; César Acuña (Alianza para el Proreso) 6.056%; Daniel Urresti (Podemos Peru) 5,679% and George Forsyth (Victoria Nacional) 5,632%. Other minor parties accounted for the rest of the votes.

Former President Alberto Fujimori, serving a prison sentence for crimes during his tenure, said in a telephone interview that he was confident his daughter would make the cut and eventually win in June. “And then she will have to fulfill her campaign promise: to pardon her father.”

Elections authorities had warned Sunday that it could take up to a month for the official results to be known, out of fear of a close tie for second place, as it had happened in the past. But even in the early hours of Monday, private consultants had anticipated Fujimori would advance as the trend now seems to corroborate.