PREVIEW: Peruvians to choose president from two extremes

Jun 4, 2011, 11:02 GMT

Lima - Some 20 million Peruvians are to vote Sunday in a presidential runoff election that lets them choose from two populist extremes: left-wing Ollanta Humala or right-wing Keiko Fujimori.

The last opinion polls prior to the election showed a technical tie between the two candidates, both of whom are expected to have trouble winning over undecided voters.

Nobel Prize literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, a liberal, graphically described the vote as a choice 'between AIDS and terminal cancer,' although he has since endorsed Humala as the lesser of two evils.

In the first round of the presidential election, held on April 10, nationalist Humala, 48, led the pack with 31 per cent of the votes, mostly from poor people who feel they have missed out on Peru's economic growth and expect radical change.

Fujimori, who has since turned 36, got 23 per cent of the first-round votes, mostly from supporters of her father, former Peruvian president-turned-dictator Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000). He famously faxed in his resignation from Japan, then was arrested in Chile and is now serving long prison sentences in Peru for human rights violations and corruption.

Neither candidate has an association with any of Peru's traditional parties, but both have formed de-facto groupings for the duration of their candidacy.

After the first round of voting, Fujimori got the endorsements of defeated right-wing presidential candidates Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and Luis Castaneda. While both once slammed her for representing an undemocratic past, they now back her as a guarantee for the current economic model.

Humala, in turn, has won over the support of centrist forces, including former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo and even author Vargas Llosa, a former politician himself.

Polling stations are to open at 8 am (1300 GMT) and close eight hours later. Electoral authorities have said the first results would be available around 8 pm (0100 GMT Monday).

The ruling-party of outgoing President Alan Garcia fielded no candidate to succeed him, amid internal divisions.

The winner of Sunday's election is to be inaugurated president on July 28, with a five-year mandate. As a populist, whoever wins is likely to have trouble governing a country of 29 million with close to 35 per cent of the population under the poverty line despite an economic growth rate close of 8.8 per cent.