Peru's Garcia Widens 2nd Place Position In President Vote

[bemildred]

LIMA -(Dow Jones)- Peru presidential candidate Alan Garcia late Thursday continued to consolidate his second place position following April 9 elections, increasing the former president's chances of winning a spot in a run off against nationalist candidate Ollanta Humala.

Government elections agency ONPE said that with 94.54% of the votes counted, Garcia had 24.336% of the valid votes, narrowly more than 23.574% for candidate Lourdes Flores, who represents a center-right political alliance.

The April 9 presidential election didn't give any candidate a majority. Humala remains in the lead with 30.863% of the valid votes and he will pass into a second round run off that will likely take place in late May or early June.

The difference between Garcia and Flores is 89,294 votes, wider than vote tallies given Wednesday by the ONPE.

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[Judi Lynn]

1. This will be interesting.

[Zynx]

2. As I understand it, Garcia was pretty disasterous for the Peruvian economy

It will be interesting to see what happens.

[bemildred]

3. Garcia has a lot of baggage, as I understand it.

Still, he beat Flores, who was the "establishment" pick. I expect it will depend on how well the propaganda is catapulted in the coming months. Recents trends would suggest the advantage lies with the nationalist-populist Humala.