Peruvians to pick new president amid relentless pandemic

Peruvians are set to pick a new president amid a relentless coronavirus pandemic that has even pushed cemeteries in the South American nation beyond capacity

LIMA, Peru -- Amid an unrelenting coronavirus pandemic that has overwhelmed cemeteries, Peruvian voters will choose Sunday between a political novice who has scared business by promising to overhaul the key mining industry and a career politician whose father is a former president jailed for corruption and human rights violations. The polarizing runoff election between rural teacher Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori, making her third run for the presidency, comes on the heels of the Peruvian government’s admission that the death toll of the pandemic is at least 2.5 times higher than previously acknowledged. The jump brings the estimated death toll to more than 180,000 in a country with about one-tenth the population of the United States. Polls have shown the two candidates virtually tied heading into Sunday's runoff. In the first round of voting, featuring 18 candidates, neither received more than 20% support and both are strongly opposed by sectors of Peruvian society, leading some to label the choice as between the lesser of two evils. While Castillo’s stance on nationalizing key sectors of the economy has softened, he remains committed to rewriting the constitution that was approved under the regime of Fujimori's father and his rivals have compared his leftist policies to those of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.