Lima – The top Peruvian presidential vote-getter, who complained during the campaign that all contenders were “ganging up” on him, is headed for a May runoff against an undetermined second-place finisher, whoever he or she may be, intent on uniting opposition to the populist former colonel who finished first.
Conservative Lourdes Flores and former President Alan Garcia are battling it out for the second spot in the presidential runoff against Ollanta Humala, who on Monday consolidated his plurality as additional returns were tabulated from Sunday’s balloting.
With 70 percent of the ballots counted, the ONPE national election office said the 43-year-old Humala – the leader of the Union for Peru, or UPP, party – had won 29.19 percent of the valid votes.
Flores, a 46-year-old attorney and the leader of the National Unity alliance, was in second place in the partial count with 25.29 percent, slightly ahead of the 24.98 percent garnered by Peruvian Aprista Party candidate Alan Garcia, who governed Peru from 1985-90.
Thus, the only one of the trio who presumably slept perfectly soundly on election night was Humala, who is assured of a spot in the runoff. He spent Monday morning with his family and spoke with the Channel N television station.
He said that now people must “look ahead,” after attempting to ensure that Sunday’s embarrassing incident does not happen again.
The candidate had complained that on election day he was the victim of a “fascist act … (and an) organized ambush” by his political rivals, who “marred the election” when an anti-Humala crowd gathered at the Ricardo Palma University, where he showed up to cast his ballot.
During more than two hours of bottle-throwing, insults and destruction by the crowd – although no injuries were reported – Humala had to be protected by international observers monitoring the vote and finally escorted from the scene by security forces.
In a communique that he read later to the press, Humala said that the incident was “shameful” and added that it was the “culmination of a dirty war campaign … (that ended) with violence.”
He blamed Garcia, Flores and President Alejandro Toledo for the incident, saying that “democracy has been kidnapped and is in the hands of a minority who don’t want to lose their privileges.”
Political analyst Juan Paredes wrote in the daily El Comercio, the country’s flagship print media outlet, on Monday that never before had it been so clear that there was such a substantial protest vote in Peru against the political status quo, a reference to the support Humala garnered at the polls.
He said that the vote, if legitimate, was one of “rejection of the traditional ‘establishment.'”
To counteract the nationalist strength, the conservative daily called upon Flores and Garcia to conduct an “indispensable” national rapprochement between their two camps to preserve the country’s democratic system.
Despite Humala’s apparent plurality in the balloting, however, polls have shown consistently that the former rebellion leader, who some describe as a budding autocrat, would have a much tougher time winning a runoff.
For its part, the daily La Republica, a more progressive publication than El Comercio, said that the runoff would serve to moderate the two surviving candidates’ messages and cause them to form completely reasonable political alliances “in a country in need of unity and consensus.”
If Garcia lands a spot in the runoff, it would be the second time he would find himself in that position.
In 1985, the runoff between him and the other top vote-getter was never held because his rival withdrew from the race, leaving the presidency to Garcia.
Thus, it was not until 2001 that he had to compete in a runoff against current President Alejandro Toledo, who defeated Garcia’s bid for reelection.
The media agreed on Monday that the voting was broadly polarized and that the makeup of Congress will reflect the gravitation of most of the voters to the parties of the top three candidates: Humala, Garcia and Flores.
Although no official results from the legislative elections have been released yet, quick sample vote counts conducted by private firms give a plurality to Humala’s Union for Peru, followed by Garcia’s Aprista Party and Flores’ National Unity alliance.
Humala has recently appeared to be distancing himself somewhat from the radical nationalism of the organization founded by his father, Isaac, which in the past has called for setting up a government along the lines of the Inca empire, abolishing all forms of currency, nationalizing foreign companies, legalizing coca farming and jailing homosexuals, among other policies.
Isaac Humala founded the Etnocacerista movement, a group that takes its name from field marshall and former President Andres Avelino Caceres, a hero of Peru’s losing 1879-1883 War of the Pacific against Chile.
The movement fosters xenophobia against Chile, the United States and Israel as part of a platform that also includes indigenous demands and Inca myths.
