Almost half of Peruvians dissatisfied with Fujimori's mandate

Quase half the Peruvians make a negative assessment of the first months of President Keiko Fujimori's term of office, which maintains levels of popularity similar to that of September, according to a poll released on Friday.

The survey, carried out by the company Ipsos and published in the newspaper Peru 21, reveals that 49% of Peruvians make a negative assessment of Fujimori's performance, against 40% who make a positive assessment and 11% who have no opinion.

Dissatisfaction with Fujimori increased one percentage point from the same September poll (48%) and approval decreased by two points from the previous month (40%).

Fujimori, who took office on 28 July, began the five-year term with a positive assessment of 56% and a negative assessment of 25% in August, while 18% did not pronounce on the leader at that time.

The fall in Fujimori's popularity, which won the presidential elections by a very narrow margin over left-wing candidate Roberto Sánchez, is attributed to the lack of immediate results in the face of insecurity and organized crime activity, the main concern of Peruvians.

The Peruvian President has been focusing in recent weeks on strengthening actions and operations against organized crime, including the creation of a unified command between the police and the armed forces to pursue groups primarily dedicated to the extortion of companies, which require payment under threat of death.

“ Although their approval ratings are far from those recorded at the beginning of the mandate, they are favourable when compared to the votes they received in the first round. I think it is now in the phase of the benefit of the doubt, no longer on honeymoon ", said the director of Ipsos Peru, Alfredo Torres, in an interview with Peru 21.

The survey was conducted between October 7 and 8 with 1,212 people nationwide, with a margin of error of 2.8%.