Kuczynski emerges as Keiko Fujimori’s likely foe in Peru runoff

Former Economy Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski appears likely to qualify for the June 5 Peruvian presidential runoff against top votegetter Keiko Fujimori, provisional results released Monday indicate.

The daughter of disgraced exPresident Alberto Fujimori wound up with 39.46 percent of the votes in Sunday’s election, while Kuczynski came in in second place with 23.73 percent, based on a tabulation of 66.82 percent of the returns.

The figures verify that there will have to be a runoff on June 5 between Fujimori and Kuczynski, since nobody garnered more than 50 percent of the votes, as required by law.

Leftist Veronika Mendoza obtained 17.12 percent of the votes, losing ground in the actual vote count compared to the neckandneck tie between her and Kuczynski in the initial exit polling after the precincts closed Sunday evening.

In fourth place is centrist Alfredo Barnechea, with 7.54 percent, followed by former President Alan Garcia with 6.08 percent.

So far, the votes from 51,660 voting registers of a total of 77,307 have been processed, meaning that approximately 33 percent of the ballots remain to be counted in the coming hours.