WEEKLY WHINE

Elecciones peruanas

Today, residents of Perú will vote on the guy that they want to represent them. This comes a day after the nation lost a CONMEBOL World Cup qualifier to Ecuador. The match was kind of disappointing for the spectators, mostly because Peruvian laws ban the sale of alcohol within forty eight hours of an election. Hence they had to take in their side's performance in sobriety.

Nonetheless, a good runoff is in prospect between Alejandro Toledo and Alan García. In the regular election on SUN 08 APR 2001, Toledo of the Perú Posible party won 37% of the ballots, whilst García of the Partido Aprista Peruano took 26%. Running a close third was Lourdes Flores of the the Unidad Nacional party, who earned 24% of the votes but was victimised by nastiness between Toledo and her.

The story of this election begins in 1990, when inflation in Perú had skyrocketed to 7,600% and corruption charges were being brought against the president at the time, who just happened to be Alan García. He was booted from office, and two years later, García decided that maybe Perú wasn't such a good place for him to hang out. He was in exile throughout his successor's administration.

Alberto Fujimori replaced García in 1990. His last challenge was a year ago, a closely contested vote that also went to a runoff. Fujimori's opponent just happened to be Toledo, a native Andean who went to Stanford University for his PhD work in economics. The election was quickly beset by allegations of fraud. Toledo withdrew in protest, but tellingly, the unopposed Fujimori only managed to take 74% of the vote.

Then in SEP 2000, incriminating evidence showed up against head of intelligence Vladimiro Montesinos. A videotape released to the public placed Montesinos in the midst of corruption accusations. The fallout forced him into hiding in Venezuela, where he remains now. The extent of the scandal rapidly became apparent, and Fujimori was soon forced to schedule new elections barely a year after his last victory, making it clear that he would not seek reelection.

In NOV 2000, Perú's unicameral Congreso de la República ruled Fujimori "morally unfit" to continue his term in office. At that point, he resigned and was replaced by congressional president Valentín Paniagua. He has served as acting president since then, as Fujimori has himself gone into exile. Last week, dereliction of duty charges against him were supplemented by a more serious violation; he now stands accused of murder in a notorious 1991 case when a paramilitary squad opened fire on a group of people in Barrios Altos, a neighbourhood near Lima. Mistaken for members of a rebel organization, they were in fact partygoers who had no connection with anything. Fujimori remains in Japan, saying that he would not receive a fair trial in Perú.

Now, the race is down to García and Toledo, who are both campaigning for more job opportunities and credit for farmers. García, whose smooth words have earned him comparisons with John Kennedy, takes on Toledo, who donned clothing traditional of the Andean highlands frequently on the campaign trail. The case against García is clear: Look what happened last time. He says that his economic plan is now much different. [Wouldn't you?] Toledo, meanwhile, has recently been dogged by claims about an illegitimate child and past cocaine use. He says that the attacks are groundless. García only returned from exile in JAN 2001, shortly after the statute of limitations on his corruption charges expired. Toledo previously worked at the World Bank and is a newcomer to politics.

Does voter inertia exist? Americans once voted Grover Cleveland back into the White House after a brief hiatus. If García can regain his post as el Presidente de la República de Perú, you might start seeing more sequels of Peruvian movies as the population repeats itself.