On Monday, Peru’s left-wing presidential candidate Pedro Castillo took a weak but expanding lead ahead of right-wing rival Fujimori Keiko. Highly polarized polls Stay too close to talk.

With more than 95% of the votes counted, Castillo leads Fujimori’s 49.8% with a 50.2% approval rate.

Sunday’s runoff was held after years of political instability in Peru, and Peru is also struggling to deal with it. The surge in COVID-19 infections Mortality and related economic recession.Last week’s country Report The country with the highest per capita death rate from coronavirus in the world.

Political scientist Jessica Smith told AFP that we will not know (the winner) “until the last vote” is counted. “It is still very uncertain-the gap is too small and we have to wait for the official result.”

As uncertainty about who will become the country’s next president increased on Monday, Lima’s stock market plummeted, and the Sol/U.S. dollar exchange rate fell to an all-time low of 3.92.

The result of the shutdown may result in a few days Uncertainty and tension, Because the vote also highlighted the huge disagreement between the capital Lima and the country’s rural hinterland, which promoted the unexpected rise of Castillo.

Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori leaves the polling station after voting in Lima on June 6 [Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters]

“All we want now is democracy, everything is democratic. Lili Rocha, a voter in Lima, told Reuters news agency after some melee broke out overnight that no matter who wins, the other party will accept it and Will not cause any trouble.

Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez reported in Lima on Monday that although the vote is still too close, Castillo appears to be expanding his lead over Fujimori.

“It will win with a small number of votes,” Sanchez said of the game, explaining that votes cast from abroad may be the key. “In the beginning, it was said that two-thirds of the votes would help Fujimori, but so far, the trend abroad is that one-third of the votes support Keiko Fujimori and two-thirds support Castillo,” she said. .

Sanchez added that rural votes will also be very important and “will certainly help” Castillo because of his extensive campaigns in these areas of the country.

Meanwhile, supporters of Castillo, the leader of the teachers’ union, gathered outside his headquarters in Lima all day Monday. Sanchez said: “As you can imagine, people here are celebrating because the numbers continue to give him the lead.”

Monday was the first time that Castillo took the lead since some official results were released later on Sunday, although the difference was small.

Peruvian presidential candidate Pedro Castillo signaled to supporters the day after the runoff in Lima on June 7 [Gerardo Marin/Reuters]

When led by the daughter of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, the head of Peru’s highest electoral body warned that many polling stations from the rural areas of the Castillo Base Camp had not yet been counted.

Both candidates promised to respect the results.

Fujimori is facing allegations of corruption that she denies, and she promised to maintain Peru’s economic stability with the “mother’s firm hand”.If she wins, it is generally expected that she will Forgive her father, He is now serving a sentence for violating his rights.

As a supporter of the poor, Castillo promised to redraft the constitution to strengthen the role of the state and obtain more profits from mining companies.

Many Peruvians have Express frustration Because of the political turmoil in the country before the first round of voting in April.

Street vendor Natalia Flores told Reuters that she did not vote for any candidate on Sunday, but hoped that the winner would do a good job.

“Whoever is ahead, I think they must do their job well, because in Peru, the pandemic problem is economically terrible for us. Work is unstable,” she said. “Whether it is Mr. Castillo or Ms. Keiko (Fujimori), I hope they will do well in the next five years.”