LIMA, (Reuters) – Left-wing nationalist Ollanta Humala won the first round of Peru’s presidential election yesterday and looked set to face rightist Keiko Fujimori in what could be a bruising run-off in June, an unofficial quick count of ballots showed.
However, Fujimori’s lead over third-place candidate — former finance minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski — was narrow, so the eventual run-off pairing could change. Officials said it may take days to count all the votes.
Despite a decade-long boom, a third of Peruvians live in poverty and many rallied behind Humala, a former army officer who haspositioned himself as a man of the people opposite three rivals who are backed by big business.
Polling firm Ipsos said its review of a sample of ballots showed Humala with 31.8 percent, Fujimori with 22.8 percent and Kuczynski at 19.6 percent. Further back was former President Alejandro Toledo.
Fujimori favours free market policies, but is shunned by many Peruvians because her father, former president Alberto Fujimori, is in prison for corruption and human rights crimes stemming from his crackdown on guerrillas in the 1990s.
A Humala-Fujimori run-off is seen polarizing Peru.
“This wasn’t the result I wanted. It’s going to divide the country,” said advertising agency employee Renaldo Arroz, 40. “I’ll have to vote for Humala in the second round. Many forget what Fujimori did, but not me. They were terrifying times.”
The quick count confirmed the trend shown earlier by three exit polls.
Humala, 48, has surged in the race by shedding his hardline image and recasting himself as a soft-left leader in the vein of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He says he has mellowed and distanced himself from his former political mentor, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Humala’s rivals have sought to hurt his chances by saying he would step up state control over the economy, rolling back reforms and jeopardizing some $40 billion of foreign investment lined up for the next decade in mining and energy exploration.
Such warnings have spooked better-off Peruvians, who are enjoying relative wealth and stability after years of hyperinflation and guerrilla wars during the 1980s and 1990s.
