Leftist Humala likely to face Fujimori in runoff
Source: Agencies |
April 12, 2011, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
LEFT-WING nationalist Ollanta Humala won the first round of Peru's presidential election and looks set to face rightist lawmaker Keiko Fujimori in a June 5 runoff, partial official results showed yesterday.
With more than two-thirds of Sunday's ballots counted, officials said Humala had 28.7 percent of the vote, followed by Fujimori with 22.7 percent - just ahead of former Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski at 21.7 percent.
The latest results were closer to earlier unofficial samplings of ballots that showed Humala with a wider lead over his nearest challenger and Fujimori advancing to the runoff with a lead of 2 to 4 percentage points over Kuczynski.
Despite a decade-long economic boom, a third of Peruvians live in poverty and many rallied behind Humala, a former army officer who has positioned himself as a man of the people with indigenous roots in the Andes.
"We want the wealth of Peru to be well distributed," said Juan Urteaga, 18, from the Andean city Cajamarca. "How is it that my city is close to one of the world's biggest gold mines, Yanacocha, but my city has one of Peru's highest poverty rates?"
Polls say both Fujimori and Kuczynski would have trouble defeating Humala in a second-round vote.
Fujimori, 35, supports existing free-market policies, but is shunned by many because her father, ex-president Alberto Fujimori, is in prison for corruption and human rights crimes stemming from his crackdown on guerrillas in the 1990s.
Kuczynski, 72, an ex-prime minister known as "El Gringo" because of his European parents, would have trouble tapping ethnic voters in provinces outside of Lima, the capital, where wealthy voters back him.
Humala, a former army officer who led a short-lived military revolt in 2000, has softened his anti-capitalist tone since narrowly losing the 2006 elections.
"We are willing to make many concessions to unite Peru," he told cheering supporters. "Social problems must be resolved through dialogue."
Humala, 48, surged in the election race by recasting himself as a moderate in the vein of former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and distancing himself from his former political mentor, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
His rivals have sought to hurt his chances by saying he would step up state control over the economy, roll back reforms and jeopardize some US$40 billion of foreign investment lined up for the next decade in mining and energy exploration.
With more than two-thirds of Sunday's ballots counted, officials said Humala had 28.7 percent of the vote, followed by Fujimori with 22.7 percent - just ahead of former Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski at 21.7 percent.
The latest results were closer to earlier unofficial samplings of ballots that showed Humala with a wider lead over his nearest challenger and Fujimori advancing to the runoff with a lead of 2 to 4 percentage points over Kuczynski.
Despite a decade-long economic boom, a third of Peruvians live in poverty and many rallied behind Humala, a former army officer who has positioned himself as a man of the people with indigenous roots in the Andes.
"We want the wealth of Peru to be well distributed," said Juan Urteaga, 18, from the Andean city Cajamarca. "How is it that my city is close to one of the world's biggest gold mines, Yanacocha, but my city has one of Peru's highest poverty rates?"
Polls say both Fujimori and Kuczynski would have trouble defeating Humala in a second-round vote.
Fujimori, 35, supports existing free-market policies, but is shunned by many because her father, ex-president Alberto Fujimori, is in prison for corruption and human rights crimes stemming from his crackdown on guerrillas in the 1990s.
Kuczynski, 72, an ex-prime minister known as "El Gringo" because of his European parents, would have trouble tapping ethnic voters in provinces outside of Lima, the capital, where wealthy voters back him.
Humala, a former army officer who led a short-lived military revolt in 2000, has softened his anti-capitalist tone since narrowly losing the 2006 elections.
"We are willing to make many concessions to unite Peru," he told cheering supporters. "Social problems must be resolved through dialogue."
Humala, 48, surged in the election race by recasting himself as a moderate in the vein of former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and distancing himself from his former political mentor, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
His rivals have sought to hurt his chances by saying he would step up state control over the economy, roll back reforms and jeopardize some US$40 billion of foreign investment lined up for the next decade in mining and energy exploration.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
