The folks at CNN wrote:
Leftist candidate Ollanta Humala, who was taunted by residents of his district when he voted Sunday, was barely ahead in Peru's presidential election, and a runoff election became inevitable when none of the top candidates received a majority of the vote.
A candidate needed at least 50 percent to claim victory. The runoff election is to be held within a month after final results are tallied.
With 67.3 percent of the ballots counted, Humala, a 43-year-old former army officer, had 28.7 percent of the vote in a field of 20 candidates Monday, according to the national elections office.
Conservative Lourdes Flores, 46, had 25.8 percent of the vote, and Alan Garcia, 55, a socialist who led Peru from 1985 to 1990, had 25.1 percent.
[...]
Like Chavez, Humala is a former army colonel who led a failed military coup in 2000. The candidate has said he would forge closer ties with Venezuela, if elected.
[...]
Humala is the latest in a line of self-styled champions of the poor who have come to power recently in South America. He opposes trade globalization and has called for a review of Peru's contracts with overseas companies, particularly the multinational mining companies digging for Peru's natural resources.
He has campaigned on promises to legalize coca leaves, the raw material used to make cocaine, and to forge close ties with Chavez.
And like President Evo Morales in neighboring Bolivia, Humala says he would put the interests of Peru's mostly poor Andean indians first.
Flores is a commercial attorney and former congresswoman vying to become the first woman president in the nation's history. In a recent interview with CNN, she said Humala's message is dangerous.
"Peru can't go down into the abyss with Humala," said Flores, who favors close ties with the United States.
Under current President Alejandro Toledo, another leftist, Peru's economy showed healthy growth and exports boomed. But the benefits never trickled down to the poor: Government statistics show that about two-thirds of the 28 million Peruvians still live in poverty.
There were 16.5 million Peruvians eligible to vote. Another 400,000 Peruvians voted from outside the country. Votes cast in some remote areas of the country where there have been mudslides could take longer to collect, officials said.
A candidate needed at least 50 percent to claim victory. The runoff election is to be held within a month after final results are tallied.
With 67.3 percent of the ballots counted, Humala, a 43-year-old former army officer, had 28.7 percent of the vote in a field of 20 candidates Monday, according to the national elections office.
Conservative Lourdes Flores, 46, had 25.8 percent of the vote, and Alan Garcia, 55, a socialist who led Peru from 1985 to 1990, had 25.1 percent.
[...]
Like Chavez, Humala is a former army colonel who led a failed military coup in 2000. The candidate has said he would forge closer ties with Venezuela, if elected.
[...]
Humala is the latest in a line of self-styled champions of the poor who have come to power recently in South America. He opposes trade globalization and has called for a review of Peru's contracts with overseas companies, particularly the multinational mining companies digging for Peru's natural resources.
He has campaigned on promises to legalize coca leaves, the raw material used to make cocaine, and to forge close ties with Chavez.
And like President Evo Morales in neighboring Bolivia, Humala says he would put the interests of Peru's mostly poor Andean indians first.
Flores is a commercial attorney and former congresswoman vying to become the first woman president in the nation's history. In a recent interview with CNN, she said Humala's message is dangerous.
"Peru can't go down into the abyss with Humala," said Flores, who favors close ties with the United States.
Under current President Alejandro Toledo, another leftist, Peru's economy showed healthy growth and exports boomed. But the benefits never trickled down to the poor: Government statistics show that about two-thirds of the 28 million Peruvians still live in poverty.
There were 16.5 million Peruvians eligible to vote. Another 400,000 Peruvians voted from outside the country. Votes cast in some remote areas of the country where there have been mudslides could take longer to collect, officials said.
I won't pretend to know enough about South America to form an opinion on what effect another strong Leftist leader, particularly one allied with Chavez, would have on the region or the United States. Humala's anti-international commerce stance would seem to blow the Free Trade Agreement out of the water as far as Peru is concerned.
Currently, Peru runs a surplus export of about $3 billion ($16 vs $13) but the United States is a major portion of that. The eventual completion of the Camisea Natural Gas Project may shift the tide there if Peru can start exporting its rather abundant natural gas reserves.