RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Former congressman Yonhy Lescano, member of Acción Popular, leads the voting intention two weeks before the elections to elect the president of Peru next April 11th, while three other candidates are fighting for second place, according to the most recent Datum national poll.
The distribution of the vote so far places Lescano with 14 percent support, while Rafaél López Aliaga (9 percent), former soccer player George Forsyth (8 percent) and former congresswoman Keiko Fujimori (8 percent) are in a technical three-way tie.
For fifth place Verónika Mendoza comes in with 6 percent support, followed by economist Hernando de Soto (5 percent), former congressman Daniel Urresti (5 percent), union leader Pedro Castillo (3 percent), businessman César Acuña (3 percent), former congressman Daniel Salaverry (2 percent), economist Julio Guzmán (2 percent) and former president Ollana Humala (2 percent).
According to Datum’s survey, 14 percent of Peruvians will not vote for anyone or will void their ballots in the elections, while 17 percent have not yet defined their vote.
Twenty-eight percent of the voters have defined who they will choose, while 45 percent are still thinking about some options. Twenty-five percent say they have not thought at all about the elections.
The most unpopular candidates are Keiko Fujimori with 60 percent of voting intentions, which is the same as saying that she is a candidate for whom voters would never vote. She is followed by Ollanta Humala with 38 percent, Verónika Mendoza with 17 percent, César Acuña 15 percent and Julio Guzmán 12 percent.
The Datum poll was conducted from March 18 to 21 among 1,201 subjects. Its margin of error is +/- 2.8 percent, with 95 percent confidence and 98 percent representativeness.
Coincidence in the polls
On the other hand, the survey of the Compañía Peruana de Estudios de Mercados y Opinión Pública (CPI) shows the candidate of Acción Popular, Yonhy Lescano as favorite with 12.2 percent of voting intentions.
In second and third places are George Forsyth (8 percent) and Rafael López Aliaga with 7.2 percent respectively. For fourth place, Keiko Fujimori has 6.5 points, followed by Verónika Mendoza (5.9 percent), Hernando Soto (4.5 percent), César Acuña (4 percent), Daniel Urresti (3.8 percent), Pedro Castillo (2.5 percent) and Julio Guzmán with 2 percent.
Both polls agree that Lescano, Forsyth and López have the best chances for the race.
Leading candidates
Rafael López Aliaga Cazorla is a candidate for the Renovación Popular party. He has a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Piura and a master’s degree in administration from the University of the Pacific. He is a former provincial councilman of Lima, capital of Peru.
George Forsyth is a candidate for the National Victory Front. He began his sports career in the Alianza Lima club, where he was part of the first team in the goalkeeper position. From 2011 he dedicated himself to political life, after being elected municipal councilor of La Victoria for the Partido Popular Cristiano. In 2019 he won the victory in the mayoralty of said district with Somos Perú.
Yonhy Lescano Ancieta is a Popular Action candidate, he was born in Puno and is a lawyer by profession, graduated from the Catholic University Santa Maria. He was elected congressman four times (between 2001 and 2019), twice as representative of the department of Puno and twice for Lima.
For her part, Keiko Fujimori is a former congresswoman running for Fuerza Popular, a business administrator graduated from Boston University and a master’s degree in specialization from Columbia University. Between 2006 and 2011 she held a seat in Congress.
Verónika Mendoza Frich is the candidate of Juntos por el Perú, another former congresswoman, with a degree in psychology from the University of Paris VIII Denis Diderot. She holds dual Peruvian and French nationality and ran for president in 2016.
Currently, presidential hopefuls are working to secure voting intentions and broadening the support of the undecided.
Some, like Lescano, have already referred to their international projection when in power, others like López warn about “diabolical forces” of the left against Peru; Keiko held a rally via internet due to the impossibility of appearing due to judicial restriction and Mendoza presented three projects to demonstrate his “urgent commitment for true change”.
Source: Telesur