Leftist Humala leads in Peru election: poll

[Judi Lynn]

Leftist Humala leads in Peru election: poll
Reuters
Saturday, April 8, 2006; 8:23 PM

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Leftist Ollanta Humala holds a slight lead in Peru's election race, and former President Alan Garcia is tied with pro-business candidate Lourdes Flores for second place, a poll showed on Saturday.

The survey by Apoyo showed Humala, a former army commander backed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, with 27 percent of voter support. Garcia, a center-left former president, and Flores, a pro-business former congresswoman, each had 23 percent, Apoyo said.

The final pre-election poll by Apoyo, widely seen as one of the country's most reliable polling groups, confirmed the steady rise of Garcia, who has seen his poll numbers climb in the final weeks of the campaign.

Seeking a final push ahead of Sunday's balloting, Garcia has held rallies this week in 11 cities, hoping to bolster his support, made up predominantly of young and rural voters.
(snip/...)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/08/AR2006040800963.html

[Peace Patriot]

1. Gee, I wonder who paid for those 11 rallies--and what the expenses

were--free bus rides, free music concerts, free food, free booze?

Wake up, kids! Wake up in the morning and know that you were had--and vote for your FUTURE!

Viva the revolution! GO, OLLANTA!

-------------------

"The time of the people has come." --Evo Morales

[Judi Lynn]

2. The Return of the Caudillo

The Return of the Caudillo
A retired Army officer may become the latest 'man on horseback' to gain power through the ballot box.
By Joseph Contreras and Sally Bowen
Newsweek International

April 10-17, 2006 issue - A crowd of several thousand gathered in the city of Chiclayo last month to greet the man who could very well become Peru's next president. The compact candidate Ollanta Humala and his equally diminutive 29-year-old wife, Nadine, arrived dressed in bright red T shirts stamped with white letters that read amor por el peru {love for peru}, and the patriotic theme was reinforced onstage by a dozen huge cooking pots known as ollas painted in the red and white stripes of the national flag. Thanks to the coincidence of spelling, an olla will appear on the ballot in this month's election as the symbol for the retired Army officer's fledgling Peruvian Nationalist Party. And one of the millions of voters who will mark his cross over the humble pot is Jesús Flores. "You have to believe in someone," says the Chiclayo street vendor. "We want a hard-liner who can put an end to corruption. We want radical change."

So do many others across Latin America. Riding the wave of discontent that has lifted Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Bolivia's Evo Morales to power, Humala, 44, has come from third place to lead polls going into Peru's April 9 vote. Like Chávez and Morales, he defends the rights of the poor and rails against the evils of neoliberal economic policies. But even more important than his populist rhetoric may be another characteristic he shares with Chávez, as well as Ecuador's former president Lucio Gutierrez: his iron-fisted image. Like them, Humala's main "qualification" for the nation's highest office is his leadership of a failed coup, one he led as an active-duty lieutenant colonel in October 2000 against then president Alberto Fujimori. Now he's almost certain to finish among the top two vote-getters, and if he goes on to win a runoff election expected to take place in May, he'll become the latest in a series of political outsiders with military backgrounds to take power in Latin America.

Far from discrediting these modern-day putschists in the eyes of their countrymen, their decision to take up arms is seen as an asset, a sign of personal valor and commitment in a thoroughly corrupted political culture. They represent the 21st-century reincarnation of the caudillo—the charismatic man-on-horseback figure who still captures the imagination of millions with promises of a better future. The word is literally translated as chief or leader, but its full meaning encompasses the patronage-dispensing political boss who takes care of his followers in exchange for their unswerving loyalty. Humala recognizes the power of the image. His short-lived mutiny, he told NEWSWEEK, "was one of the best things I have done in my life. {It} cost me my career, {but} that made me reflect on Peru. I realized there's no real democracy here. Traditional politicians aren't able to make contact with the people."
(snip/...)

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12113767/site/newsweek/

[Judi Lynn]

3. Humala plays on outsider status as voters go to polls

Humala plays on outsider status as voters go to polls
From Mary Powers in Lima

~snip~
...Humala resists being cast in the mould of Chávez or Morales, saying that each country has its own political and economic dynamics.

Still, like Morales in Bolivia, Humala is pledging to revise gas and oil contracts, slap more taxes on international mining companies and industrialise production of coca leaves, the raw material for cocaine. In January, Humala was also introduced by Chavez at a press conference, attended by Morales, in Caracas. The unexpected appearance brought a storm of criticism against Humala in Lima.
(snip)

However, political analyst Fernando Tuesta cautions against drawing comparisons between Morales’s upset first-round victory last December and the election in Peru. Bolivia’s population is much more rural and Morales was not an “outsider” to the political scene, but a leader of the coca growers’ movement who stood as a presidential candidate in a previous election.

García has reacted to Humala’s popularity with Peruvian voters by returning to more left-leaning positions traditionally taken by his social-democratic Aprista Party. Over the last year, García had sought to send out a more moderate message, especially with businessmen, in an attempt to recover credibility with the electorate. García’s economic policies during his 1985-1990 term were disastrous for the country and isolated Peru in international financial markets.

For her part, Flores has sought to send a message that she represents a new face – that of an honest, hard-working woman who takes a firm hand with companies that transgress any laws. Her opponents, however, have branded her at as “the candidate of the rich”.

09 April 2006
(snip/)

http://www.sundayherald.com/55036

[arcos]

6. This is exactly my issue with Humala...

'Caudillismo' has been a terrible problem all around Latin American politics for the past two centuries.

[David in Canada]

4. Viva Ollanta!

I support Ollanta Humala as he truly cares about the working class.

Lourdes Flores is a tool for IMF and robber barons. She's Peru's version of Margaret Thatcher. If she is elected, Peruvians standards of living will sink even further, unless you come from the ruling class, of course.

[cliss]

5. This is encouraging news.

If Señor Ollanta wins, that means that the US is completely distracted from its vote-rigging in Latin America.

It's so amazing that freedom occurs wherever the U.S. turns away its attention.

This is almost a fait accompli. If almost the entire southern hemisphere turns progressive, they will be a massive negotiating bloce. They will be a force to be reckoned with, and poor George Bush will have to go groveling to them.

Espero que será Ollanta.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Nationalist Humala leading in exit polls, runoff likely

Nationalist Humala leading in exit polls, runoff likely
Apr 10, 2006, 0:28 GMT

Lima - Nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala was leading in exit surveys of voters after polls closed late Sunday in Peru's presidential election.

A fiery, left-leaning populist with a military background, Humala had nearly 30 per cent of the vote in polls conducted by the Apoyo opinion research agency, enough for first place if confirmed by actual results but well short of the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a second round of voting.

In a runoff election, Humala would face the second-place finisher.

The Apoyo exit polls put both business-friendly Christian Democrat Lourdes Flores and former president Alan Garcia of the centre-left APRA party at about 25 per cent each. The vote count will show which wins the right to contest the second round.

In Peru's 2001 presidential election, Garcia narrowly beat Flores for second place, advancing to a runoff in which he was defeated by Alejandro Toledo, who did not seek re-election after becoming highly unpopular in office.
(snip/...)

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/southamerica/article_1153949.php/Nationalist_Humala_leading_in_exit_polls_runoff_likely