Policemen load electoral material on a ferry to be transported to voting stations of Taquile and Amantani islands at Puno port, Peru on Saturday. Photo: AFP

An Ipsos poll on Saturday showed Peru's runoff presidential election still locked in a statistical tie, but right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori is slightly ahead of leftist Pedro Castillo, by a 0.7 percentage point margin.

Peruvians are expected to head to the polls on Sunday in a bitterly divisive election that has pitted Fujimori, the daughter of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori, against Castillo, a little-known elementary school teacher.

Voters are divided by class and geography, with urban and higher-income Peruvians leaning toward Fujimori, and poorer, rural Peruvians leaning toward Castillo.

The Ipsos poll, which was conducted on Saturday, puts Fujimori at 44.8 percent of the vote and Castillo at 44.1 percent of the vote. Another 11.1 percent of voters would not vote for either candidate.

Ipsos said the poll had a margin of error of 1.4 percentage points and a sample size of 5,117.

Ipsos follows two other pollsters who have now put Fujimori slightly ahead, although still in statistical-tie territory.

Pollster IEP Saturday morning put Fujimori 0.1 percentage point ahead of Castillo, according to the results seen by Reuters. A poll on Friday by pollster CPI had Fujimori 0.2 percentage point ahead.

The race remains too close to call and all polls show a statistical tie, but Saturday's polls show Fujimori's best performance so far.

It is illegal within Peru to publish polls during the last week before a presidential election, although the surveys can be carried out as long as local media do not publish them.

Reuters