Exit polls: Lima's first elected female mayor survives recall vote

LIMA, Peru – Exit polls show Lima's first elected female mayor surviving a recall election widely seen as a bid to reclaim power by groups threatened by her reforms.

Three polls have at least 53 percent of voters calling for center-leftist Susana Villaran to remain in office.

Official results in Sunday's vote on whether to oust Villaran may not be known until Monday because not just the mayor but each city council member was also up for recall.

Villaran has battled to organize Lima's chaotic, transit system and reform other corruption-ridden institutions. The career human rights official was backed by most of Peru's political establishment.

Recall organizers called her inept and inefficient, and slow in executing public works projects.

Her detractors included her predecessor, Luis Castaneda, whom she had accused of corruption.