By Marco Aquino
LIMA, May 20 (Reuters) - Right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori leads voter intentions in Peru’s June 7 presidential runoff election against leftist Roberto Sanchez, a new Ipsos Peru poll showed on Wednesday.
Fujimori would secure 39% of the votes, while Sanchez is predicted to obtain 35% in the runoff vote, according to the opinion poll, which was conducted May 16-17 and published in local newspaper Peru 21.
• A previous Ipsos poll, released in late April, showed Fujimori and Sanchez tied with 38% of the vote each.
• Fujimori, daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori and running for the fourth time, won the first round on April 12 with 17% of votes.
• Sanchez, an ally of jailed former leftist President Pedro Castillo, narrowly secured a place in the runoff with 12% of votes.
• “We are going to respect private property. Things like breaking contracts just because somebody felt like it - that shouldn’t happen,” said Pedro Francke, named this week to lead the team drafting Sanchez’s economic plan that has unsettled investors.
• Stating that contracts would not be broken arbitrarily, Francke has distanced himself from his candidate’s more radical proposals that include a new constitution and revisions to mining contracts.
• Fujimori, meanwhile, has focused her campaign on restoring public order and combating crime and corruption, while analysts and market players see her as supportive of disciplined macroeconomic policy.
• Ipsos noted that opposition to Fujimori’s candidacy declined in May to 44%, down from 48% in April, though it remains higher than the 40% opposition to Sanchez.
• The poll, which has a margin of error of +/-2.8% at a 95% confidence level, found that 26% of respondents stated they would not vote for any candidate or would cast a blank ballot.
• The candidates are scheduled to debate on May 31, while their technical teams are due to debate on May 24.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Aida Pelaez Fernandez; Editing by Lucinda Elliott)
