Lima, Peru – Ollanta Humala, a polarizing former army colonel who has shot to prominence by castigating Peru’s business and political leaders, led the first round of presidential balloting Sunday, exit polls showed, and will face off in a May or June runoff against former President Alan Garcia or former Congresswoman Lourdes Flores.
The exit polls – taken as citizens left voting places – showed the leftist Humala winning 29 percent to 30 percent of the votes.
Garcia, a centrist, had 26 percent, a slight advantage over Flores, a conservative free-market supporter, who had 25 percent. Given the closeness of the race, it was too early to put Garcia in the runoff with Humala.
Pre-election polls had shown that Flores would be favored over Humala to replace outgoing President Alejandro Toledo, who cannot succeed himself. But Garcia had little or no advantage against Humala in the polls.
A victory by Humala in the runoff election would continue the wave of leftist presidential candidates winning office in South America over the past year. It would also create another political ally for Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Washington’s chief headache in South America, after the election of Bolivia’s Evo Morales in December.
Six years after a fraud-filled election re- elected President Alberto Fujimori, former Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, who is heading an Organization of American States team in Peru, said Sunday’s election occurred with only minor glitches, except for one tense standoff in Lima.
Axworthy and his team had to rescue Humala from a classroom where he had voted after hundreds of opponents shouting “Assassin!” blocked him from leaving. The incident reflected the country’s deep divisions.
Humala has struck a deep chord with Peru’s downtrodden, half the population, who live on $2 a day or less and feel left behind by the rising tide of Peru’s economic growth under Toledo.
“The civilian governments promise much and don’t deliver,” said one voter, Roman Bravo, a 37-year-old construction worker. “It’s time for order. It’s time for a military government.”
