Fujimori support firms as leftist rises in Peru presidential race

Fujimori support firms as leftist rises in Peru presidential race

Sun Apr 3, 2016 5:03pm EDT

Fujimori support firms as leftist rises in Peru presidential race

Sun Apr 3, 2016 5:03pm EDT

LIMA (Reuters) - Support for Keiko Fujimori, the front-runner in Peru's presidential election next week, firmed as leftist lawmaker Veronika Mendoza made a late surge in a vote likely to head to a second round, an Ipsos survey showed.

Fujimori, the 40-year-old center-right daughter of imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori, has long enjoyed a double-digit lead over her nine rivals.

But she has struggled to distance herself from the dark legacy of her father, who is serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses and corruption in his 1990-2000 government and is not expected to win outright on April 10.

Support for her in a mock voting exercise rose 2.1 percentage points to 40.8 percent of valid votes, according to the poll published on Sunday in the daily El Comercio. The Ipsos survey of some 1,800 people from March 30 to April 1 had a margin of error of 2.3 points.

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