Presidential in Peru: voters say they are divided between "two catastrophic options"
Audio 01:32
Peruvian presidential candidates Pedro Castillo (left) and Keïko Fujimori (right) during televised debates in Lima on March 30 and 29, 2021, respectively.
© Sebastian Castaneda, AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
Peru goes to the polls on June 6 for the second round of the presidential election, where they will have the choice between the radical left with Pedro Castillo and the populist right with Keïko Fujimori.
If he is a teacher and trade unionist almost unknown in politics, she is the daughter of the former dictator Alberto Fujimori and is running for the third time, despite serious accusations of corruption against her.
Peruvians are dismayed and divided over the choice.
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With our correspondent in Lima
,
Wyloën Munhoz-Boillot
In the streets of the capital, many Peruvians speak
of a second round between "
the plague and cholera
"
.
For Hugo Velarde, communicating in Miraflores, a residential district of Lima, it is the worst scenario possible: “
These are two equally catastrophic options.
Fujimori represents the worst corruption in Peru
.
And Castillo, with his Communist economic plan, wants us to go back at least two centuries.
So I can't vote for either.
"
Even if the total number of votes gathered by the right-wing parties makes a victory for Keïko Fujimori a priori more plausible, nothing is over as the two candidates arouse the rejection of part of the population.
According to polls carried out before the first round, 70% of Peruvians say they will never vote for Keïko Fujimori.
Like Eli Garido, taxi driver in Lima: “
I will always vote against her because of
what her father did to our country
.
And she is under
investigation for corruption
.
And if justice condemns it, we will end up with a president in prison
?
I prefer Castillo a thousand times over Keïko.
"
But
the radical left candidate Pedro Castillo
also arouses great mistrust.
Elias, a marketing student, also excludes voting for him: "
I am going to vote for Keïko Fujimori, because it is a right that we know, while the other option is the radical left, and I I'm afraid we'll end up like Venezuela or Cuba.
"
Like him, many Peruvians associate the left with Chavismo or the Shining Path terrorism which caused thousands of deaths in the 1980s in Peru.
While the campaign for the second round has not yet started, Peruvian society already seems very divided, making the outcome of the second round more than uncertain.
► Also to listen
: Presidential in Peru: "The memory of Alberto Fujimori weighed heavily"
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