PERU: OLLANTA HUMALA HEADED TO RUNOFF IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, BUT NAME OF OPPONENT STILL UNCLEAR.
Voters in Peru's April 9 presidential election handed the most votes to nationalist Ollanta Humala, but the name of the opponent he would face in a runoff was still unavailable ten days after the vote. The numbers for former President Alan Garcia (1985-1990) and Lourdes Flores were extremely close, with the two candidates fighting for every vote as results trickled in from the national electoral authority. Election officials, blaming the Easter holiday for delays in the count, said they expected 100% of the results to be available the week of April 24-28.
As of April 19, the Oficina Nacional de Procesos Electorales (ONPE) had counted 91.6% of the vote, showing that the difference between Garcia, of the center-left Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA), and Flores, of the business-friendly Unidad Nacional (UN), had shrunk from more than 100,000 to 67,499 votes. This count left Garcia with 24.30% of the vote and Flores with 23.71%. By the next day, Garcia's lead had grown slightly to 74,403 votes with 92.3% of the vote counted. This still left Garcia and Flores with almost the same percentage of the vote, although it made APRA's preparations for the second round seem more credible.
Humala ahead by more than five points, far from majority
Humala's tally of 30.77% of the total was insurmountable for his two closest competitors, giving him more than 3.5 million votes, while Garcia and Flores each took between 2.7 and 2.8 million votes. The face of the Partido Nacionalista Peruana (PNP), also known as the Union por el Peru (UPP), Humala is riding on a wave of popular resentment against the administration of President Alejandro Toledo as well as resentments against larger economic powers in the region, like Chile (see NotiSur, 2005-11-18) and the US. The press has almost universally condemned Humala's stance, saying his and his family members' ethnonationalist ideas (see NotiSur, 2005-01-14) would lead to an authoritarian, racist government and to abuses of power.
Humala faced accusations that he was involved in human rights abuses when he held a military command in the 1990s (see NotiSur, 2006-03-10). Nonetheless, the allegations did little to stop his continued upswing in opinion surveys prior to the vote, although what their ultimate effect on his second-round campaign will be is not yet clear.
No other candidates were serious contenders in the race. Martha Chavez of the Alianza por el Futuro (AF) received 7.4% and Valentin Paniagua...
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