Humala finishes first in Peru's race
Leftist leader faces a June 5 runoff with populist candidate Keiko Fujimori
A day after nationalist Ollanta Humala and populist Keiko Fujimori were declared the top vote-winners in Sunday's presidential elections in Peru, the two candidates on Tuesday began courting supporters of the other parties as they begin the campaign for the June 5 runoff.
Humala took 31.7 percent while Fujimori garnered 23.4 percent of the vote, according to latest figures released on Tuesday, based on 92 percent of the voting tables' results.
Up until Monday, Fujimori, the daughter of jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori, was still engaged in a closely contested battle for second place with former Economy Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who ended up with 18.6 percent.
Former President Alejandro Toledo and former Lima Mayor Luis Castañeda, both early favorites in the race, were knocked back to fourth and fifth place with 15.4 percent and 9.8 percent respectively.
"We don't want to abandon the current economic model," says Humala
Fujimori, who met with her advisors on Monday, said she hasn't ruled out inviting Kuczynski, who is better known in the press by his initials PPK, to join her government if she wins the June 5 runoff. Rejecting the idea that she will look to form alliances with other parties, Fujimori said that instead she will examine where her government plans coincide with proposals presented by other platforms.
The 35-year-old contender for the Fuerza 2011 alliance has said that she will wage a fierce battle against public corruption but won't change the Constitution - a move suggested by Humala to combat poverty.
A 48-year-old former army officer, Humala, of the Win Peru party, explained there is a deficient distribution of wealth in Peru "that needs to be corrected." "We don't want to abandon the current economic model," the leftist leader told a radio station on Monday.
The country has experienced rapid growth over the past 10 years. The World Bank predicts that Peru's economy grew by nearly eight percent in 2010 and could have a similar showing this year.
Although the national poverty level dropped from 48.6 percent to 34.3 percent between 2004 and 2009, the differences among regions are astonishing. While poverty in urban areas is below average, figures skyrocket in rural regions. This gap is also noticeable in education and health. In the Andean regions of Apurimac, Puno and Cuzco, there are two doctors per 10,000 inhabitants while in the capital Lima the ratio is two per 28.
Humala's popularity with voters, who had placed him in fourth place in early opinion polls, surged just weeks before the elections.
Some candidates, such as Kuczynski, had tried to instill fear among voters by suggesting that Humala would introduce a Socialist, government-controlled economy, mimicking Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. But Humala, who lost to Alan García in a 2006 runoff, has toned down his once-radical campaign rhetoric to a more moderate approach. Following Monday's almost-complete results, third-placed Kuczynski congratulated his two rivals.
When the wealth fails to trickle down
Escalating frustration with the huge inequalities in the way wealth is being distributed was the fuel that ignited the candidacies of nationalist Ollanta Humala and populist Keiko Fujimori in Peru. Although the country has seen seven-percent average annual growth over the past five years - a record for Latin America - just a few kilometers away from Lima many people don't have clean drinking water, eat only what they grow, and defecate in holes in the ground.
"Even the World Bank has told us that we must make reforms so that economic growth also benefits the poor. [...] Can you imagine? The World Bank telling us that we must have better social policies?" says political analyst Sinesio López, a former professor of Humala and one of the candidate's friends who, while supporting the former military officer, cannot conceal his concerns about his authoritarian streak.
Just two weeks ago, the World Bank urged the Peruvian government to develop future policies that transfer wealth to the underprivileged.
Because of his failure to implement these measures, President Alan García is leaving office this year with his popularity hitting rock bottom despite some efforts to reduce poverty.
The recent conflict in the mining town of Islay in Arequipa crept into the campaign to remind Peruvian leaders that not everyone has seen profits from the star sector of the economy. After 17 days of protest and three deaths, the government canceled a mining operation following a demand by local farmers, who feared that environmental pollution would turn their fields into a wasteland. Although regional and local governments receive 50 percent of the taxes paid by mining companies to the state, the lack of investment projects and a tendency to waste money explain why people in many parts of the country object to mining. The Cuzco region, for example, which receives nearly $1 billion a year in mining concessions, is overwhelmingly underdeveloped.
In Peru there is a huge fragmentation of responsibility between different authorities - national, regional and local officials - and a system of resource allocation subject to political infighting. Although there have been several attempts at regional integration to increase administrative efficiency and help distribute resources, all these have failed.
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