Garcia takes lead in opinion polls ahead of Peru's presidential runoff

Peru's former president Alan Garcia took the lead in the latest opinion polls, with nine days to go to the June 4 presidential election runoff against the nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala, local media said on Friday.

In the latest poll by the Catholic University's Research Center, Garcia, a social democrat from the Peru Aprist Party, had 54 percent, over 46 percent for Humala, who leads the Peru Nationalist Union Party (PNUPP).

Some 23 percent of the people surveyed said they either had not decided, or found neither candidate appealing.

Analysts said those people might swing the final outcome of the race.

In an earlier nationwide poll conducted on May 10-12 by the polling company Apoyo, Garcia led Humala, 56 percent to 44 percent.

Out of the 99.98 percent of the votes counted for the first round of the election on April 9, Humala, 43, got 30.62 percent, while the 56-year-old Garcia, who was in power from 1985 to 1990, had 24.32 percent.

They were the front-runners among 20 candidates competing for the presidency.

Source: Xinhua