Peru's Sanchez gains ground before June 7 runoff with Fujimori
What's new: An Ipsos poll put Sanchez at 43.8% and Fujimori at 43.2%, with about 13% planning to cast blank or spoiled ballots.
Peruvian leftist Roberto Sanchez has tightened the presidential race ahead of the June 7 runoff, while softening earlier proposals that had unsettled investors. An Ipsos poll conducted June 3 showed Sanchez at 43.8% and conservative rival Keiko Fujimori at 43.2%, effectively a statistical tie given the survey's 2.1-point margin of error. Sanchez, a former cabinet minister under ousted ex-president Pedro Castillo, has recently adopted a more pragmatic economic pitch after calls to rewrite the constitution and expand state oversight of mining stirred concern in a country where mining makes up about 10% of GDP. In May, he brought in former economy minister Pedro Francke as a senior adviser to reassure centrist voters and markets.