Peru votes in presidential election as Fujimori leads polls

Polling stations will open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m local time. Close to 23 million Peruvians will cast their ballots to elect a successor to President Ollanta Humala, who is barred from running for a consecutive term, and 130 lawmakers to Peru's unicameral Congress.

Keiko, the daughter of jailed autocrat Alberto Fujimori, had between 38 percent and 43 percent of the ballots in three simulated votes by polling agencies released this week. Veronica Mendoza and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski were statistically tied in second place on about half that level. The race for runner-up was thrown open last month after two popular candidates were disqualified, giving way to a late surge in support for Mendoza. She has proposed curbs on the mining industry, increasing corporate taxes and renegotiating natural gas export contracts.

Rising support for Mendoza fueled a drop in Peru's currency and bonds last week on concern her policies will hurt South America's fastest growing major economy of the past decade. The sol slid 0.4 percent against the dollar over the last week.

Kuczynski, a former finance minister and central bank director, has said his government would cut the sales tax, issue more debt to finance public works, and clamp down on the informal economy to boost tax revenue.

The Andean nation is implementing electronic voting on a large scale for the first time, with close to three quarters of a million people casting their ballot this way. The electoral office has said it expects to count 30 percent of the votes by 9 p.m. in Lima.
Ipsos and GfK have said they will release exit polls the minute voting ends.

Peru's republican history has been marked by a series of military coups, making this the first time since winning independence from Spain 195 years ago that the country is holding a fourth consecutive democratic election.

Source: Bloomberg