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Garcia has narrow lead in race for run-off with Humala in Peru
By Patrick Moser
AFP
LIMA
Petroleumworld.com 04 12 06Firebrand populist Ollanta Humala solidified his lead in Peru's presidential election Tuesday, and controversial ex-president Alan Garcia held a fragile advantage over a conservative for qualification to the second round.
Humala, who has rattled the political establishment and financial markets with his hardline, left-leaning rhetoric, had 30.8 percent in a count of just over 83 percent of valid ballots.
As the tally of ballots continued, Garcia, a moderate leftist, had 24.7 percent and Flores took 23.6 percent, according to the partial count.
With none of the candidates getting a majority in Sunday's voting, the two top vote-getters will face off in a second round to be held 30 days after the final results are announced.
No political party has achieved a congressional majority either, but Humala's followers unexpectedly scored the most votes, getting 43 mandates in the 120-seat unicameral Congress, according to a partial count.
Garcia's APRA party, Peru's oldest, had 35 seats, and Flores's center-right coalition had 19. Followers of disgraced ex-president Alberto Fujimori came in fourth position with 15 seats. Fujimori's hopes to run in the presidential were dashed when he was arrested in Chile last year, but his daughter Keiko got more votes than any other candidate in the congressional race.
Political parties have now started backroom discussions to form alliances, both in the Congress and for the second round presidential election.
Humala and his challenger are certain to court some of the 18 other candidates in Sunday's voting, including Marta Chavez, who ran for the pro-Fujimori party and got six percent of the vote.
"We would be in a dangerous situation if we cannot achieve an arrangement that includes democratic elements and a desire for change," said Garcia.
Both Garcia and Flores have painted the presidential race as a battle between democratic forces and the threat of dictatorship they insist Humala represents.
A self-styled champion of the poor and a hardcore nationalist who admires Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, Humala has called for a redistribution of wealth and exemplary punishments for crooked politicians he says have poisoned the country.
He has unsettled financial markets with his pledge to tighten state controls over the key mining and gas sectors and to hike taxes on foreign companies' revenues.
He has also voiced opposition to the US-financed eradication of coca, a medicinal plant from which the base ingredient of cocaine is processed.
His critics, including many in Peru's media, had a field day with statements made by his family, a clan whose "ethno-nationalist" creed calls for "copper-coloured" Peruvians to oust the "white" and "yellow" elites.
During the electoral campaign, Humala's mother called for homosexuals to be executed, and one of his brothers said corrupt politicians should face the firing squad.
Allegations that Humala was once tied to Fujimori's now jailed former spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos has further stirred controversy. Humala has also fought off claims he was behind the torture and "disappearance" of government opponents when he battled leftist insurgencies in the 1990s.
Humala has claimed his rivals represent more of the same in a country where 50 percent of the population live in poverty and often feel they have not benefited from the years of economic growth.
Flores, 46, who is backed by the business community, has battled claims she represents only wealthy Peruvians. She had already made two unsuccessful bids for the presidency.
Garcia in turn has spent much of his campaign trying to convince voters he has learned from past mistakes since his 1985-1990 administration, which was marked by hyperinflation, rampant corruption and clashes with international financial institutions.
AFP 04 11 2006 1558 GMTCopyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
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