Ex-president Garcia leads Peru runoff vote: exit polls

Reuters ^ | June 4, 2006 | Robin Emmott

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LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Left-of-center former President Alan Garcia led a run-off election on Sunday, exit polls showed, staging a huge political comeback after his 1980s government ended in economic ruin, rebel violence and accusations of rights abuses.

Garcia had 52.8 percent of the vote, compared to 47.2 percent for ex-army nationalist Ollanta Humala, according to an exit poll released by respected firm Apoyo. A Datum exit poll gave Garcia 54.9 percent versus 45.1 percent for Humala.

A Garcia victory would undermine efforts by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez to take advantage of a populist tide in Latin America to challenge U.S. influence.

Chavez and Garcia insulted each other before the vote after the Venezuelan leader publicly supported Humala.

Many Peruvians apparently voted for Garcia -- dubbed "Latin America's Kennedy" when he was first elected to the presidency at the age of 35 -- because he was seen as the lesser of two evils and less hostile to business.

"It's a sad day. Neither of them is a good candidate," said 45-year-old psychologist Ida Blanc after she cast her vote for Garcia in an upper-middle-class neighborhood of Lima. "I want stability and Alan is the best of a bad bunch."

Hundreds of people in northern Peru, the bastion of Garcia's APRA party, burst into applause and waved white handkerchiefs on hearing the results of the exit polls.

Humala's supporters said it was too early to admit defeat, while rival voters threw water and rubbish at each other in the southern Andean city of Arequipa.

Election officials say they will have more than half of votes counted by end of Sunday.

'TREMENDOUSLY GENEROUS'

Garcia says he has learned from his mistakes and portrays himself as a left-of-center democrat who will better manage Peru's economy after five years of unprecedented growth. But Peruvians who were left destitute by his first term are still very suspicious of the 57-year-old lawyer.

"Peru is being tremendously generous to Garcia, something that he doesn't really deserve ... But this is not a blank check, he has to work hard, to do something far better this time," said Augusto Alvarez, political analyst and editor of daily Peru.21.

Garcia still preaches state regulation and his victory would be another sign of a backlash against free-market reforms in Latin America, which have done little to improve the living conditions of millions of voters.

Humala, who has charged the election could be tainted by fraud, declared "everything must be transparent" after he voted with his wife in Surco, a middle-class district of Lima.

Humala's plans to put the $75 billion economy in state hands seem too risky to many people who have lived through 30 years of turbulent governments ranging from military dictatorships to President Alberto Fujimori's corrupt populist government from 1990 to 2000.

Humala's campaign has also been hurt by the vocal support he has received from Chavez, who is generally unpopular in Peru, a country that has good relations with the United States and has a significant migrant population there.

[billorites]

They're all leftists in Latin America.

Garcia's "our" leftist.

Let's hope the Peruvians dodge the populist bullet.

[gaspar]

This is the craziest article I have ever read about Peru. Garcia is NOT our leftist. When he was last President he had his own group of terrorists thugs who were known to be gunning for American embassy personnel, including the Ambassador. He is no friend of the USA and never will be. He is an intellectual Hugo Chavez and just as dangerous.