Castillo overtakes Fujimori in Peru’s presidential vote count (Update 1)

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Peruvian presidential candidate Pedro Castillo overtook his rival, Keiko Fujimori, on Monday in the tight vote count of the presidential elections, which has already counted 92.62% of the votes.

Castillo, the leftist Peru Libre party candidate, is thus ahead for the first time with 50.07 % of the valid votes against 49.92 % for Fujimori, who ran for the third time for the presidency for the pro-Fujimori Popular Force party.

The winner of the most polarized and divided elections in Peru’s recent history will be decided vote by vote, as already predicted on Sunday night by the quick count of the pollster Ipsos, which pointed to 50.2 % for Castillo and 49.8 % for Fujimori.