Left-wing presidential candidate Ollanta Humala won a narrow victory in Peru’s presidential elections on Sunday against first lady Keiko Fujimori.
After voting in April failed to produce a clear winner, a second round pitted nationalist, ex-army officer Humala against the young conservative, Fujimori.
Fujimori, 36, is the daughter of former authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori who is now serving a 25-year jail term for human rights violations. President Fujimori schooled his daughter for the presidency by making her his first lady after separating from his wife.
Humala lead a failed coup attempt against then-President Fujimori in 2000.
Keiko Fujimori conceded defeat after Peru’s electoral commission showed Humala with 51.5 percent of votes to 48.5 percent as of Monday evening, at which point 92 percent of votes had been counted.
Professor at American University in Washington D.C. and former U.S. Ambassador to Peru, Anthony Quainton, told The Epoch Times that the election reflects the divide between urban and rural demographics in Peru.
Hamala, campaigned on a platform of evening out the country’s economic disparities and providing more social services, but toned down his anti-globalization rhetoric from his last run for the presidency.
In 2006 he narrowly lost the presidential race Alan García Perez also in a runoff vote.
After voting in April failed to produce a clear winner, a second round pitted nationalist, ex-army officer Humala against the young conservative, Fujimori.
Fujimori, 36, is the daughter of former authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori who is now serving a 25-year jail term for human rights violations. President Fujimori schooled his daughter for the presidency by making her his first lady after separating from his wife.
Humala lead a failed coup attempt against then-President Fujimori in 2000.
Keiko Fujimori conceded defeat after Peru’s electoral commission showed Humala with 51.5 percent of votes to 48.5 percent as of Monday evening, at which point 92 percent of votes had been counted.
Professor at American University in Washington D.C. and former U.S. Ambassador to Peru, Anthony Quainton, told The Epoch Times that the election reflects the divide between urban and rural demographics in Peru.
Hamala, campaigned on a platform of evening out the country’s economic disparities and providing more social services, but toned down his anti-globalization rhetoric from his last run for the presidency.
In 2006 he narrowly lost the presidential race Alan García Perez also in a runoff vote.
Despite the 2006 race, Quainton says Humala “is a political unknown” and only time will tell whether the fears that he will develop into a populist socialist president in the mold of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez are founded.
“All you have to go on,” Quainton said, “are the things that he has said and the assurances that he has given to the people of Peru and to the economic sources of power in Peru.”
The former ambassador said that the hopes for continued good Peruvian-U.S. relations lies in Humala’s handling of economic policies, how he conducts the war on drugs in the Andes and how he operates within democratic parameters.
Traditionally, Peruvian politics has operated more based on leader personality, than on any structural framework.
“The political leader builds his campaign around his personal persona. He is not the product of a political party structure as in the United States… [I]n Peru, each president brings a cadre of personal followers who will be those who carry out the vision the president has.”
Quainton pointed out that since this is Humala’s first time in government, and he has no substantial political party, it is not clear where Peru’s newest president will take the country.
Humala founded the Peruvian Nationalist Party in October 2005, according to the Party’s website.
“All you have to go on,” Quainton said, “are the things that he has said and the assurances that he has given to the people of Peru and to the economic sources of power in Peru.”
The former ambassador said that the hopes for continued good Peruvian-U.S. relations lies in Humala’s handling of economic policies, how he conducts the war on drugs in the Andes and how he operates within democratic parameters.
Traditionally, Peruvian politics has operated more based on leader personality, than on any structural framework.
“The political leader builds his campaign around his personal persona. He is not the product of a political party structure as in the United States… [I]n Peru, each president brings a cadre of personal followers who will be those who carry out the vision the president has.”
Quainton pointed out that since this is Humala’s first time in government, and he has no substantial political party, it is not clear where Peru’s newest president will take the country.
Humala founded the Peruvian Nationalist Party in October 2005, according to the Party’s website.
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