Swedish news: looks like victory for Humala in Peru (leftist)

Swedish newspaper Expressen; http://www.expressen.se/
Date: Apr. 10, 2006
Translated by : Cliss

NARROW LEAD FOR HUMALA IN PERU

The leftist nationalist Ollanta Humala was in the lead with two-thirds of the votes counted during Sunday's presidential election in Peru. But it's far from a majority, which means that there will be a second election in May 2006.

Humala had, after almost 67% of the votes were counted, received 28.7%. In 2nd place is the conservative attorney and former congressman Lourdes Flores with 25.8%, closely followed by the former persident Alan Garcia with 25.1%.

Strong Spurt at the end

Garcia surprised many with a strong spurt at the end before the day of the elections. He took many votes from Flores in spite of the fact that during his years as president (1985 - 1990), he took his country to an economic collapse.
- We are going to see a bitter battle over the votes, and Flores and Garcia will make sure their votes are counted, said the analyst Alberto Adrianzen.

Humala wants to present himself as the next in line to many Latin American leaders who are moving left, like Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales.

Political Newcomer

The strong support for Humala, formerly a military officer, is explained that since he's a newcomer, he does not have a lot of anger directed towards him like other politicians. The final winner in the presidential race will have to preside over a fractured congress where no one party has a majority, which will make matters tougher.

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This is good news! While Bush is away, the Cats will play!

I wonder if Campbell's actually makes Lutefisk soup? (I don't care for it, personally!)

I like having fun with it, but lutefisk soup? I grew up every Christmas (1950s-60s) not able to take a bath because Mom was soaking the lutefisk in the tub, for her two brothers (my uncles). Never developed a taste for it. Pickled herring, though - yum.

Humala widens lead, Garcia climbs in Peru vote

Apr 10, 2006 — By Kevin Gray

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Nationalist Ollanta Humala, who has rallied the poor but angered the rich with pledges to redistribute Peru's wealth, led the presidential election on Monday and was likely headed to a runoff.

With about 76 percent of the vote counted, Humala, a 43-year-old former army commander and ally of leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, had 29.7 percent, election officials said.

Two other candidates were locked in a close race to determine who would face Humala in a second round since no candidate appeared on pace to capture more than 50 percent.

Left-of-center former President Alan Garcia trailed Humala with 24.98 percent, moving slightly ahead of Lourdes Flores, a pro-business conservative, with 24.62 percent. As the count continued, Garcia gained in rural areas while Flores, whose stronghold is Lima, struggled.
(snip/...)

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1827915

This is a positive development.

WOOOOHOOO!!!

POWER TO THE POOR!!!

I really can't hel p but be worried about this guy. He's described as leftist, but also as a "law and order" military type. Those types of leaders don't work out too well in Latin America. He's also more of a nationalist than a straight socialist, which can lead to trouble. Plus from what I hear he was involved in some rather sketchy things while fighting the Sendero Luminosa insurgency. This guy has the potential to be a left wing Fujimori.

I'm backing Garcia in this race. He appears to be the more othodox leftist running. I don't trust Humala.

What were the most glaring failures of his five years in office.

The Lurigancho prison massacre of Sendero inmates, June 1986.
The ploy of attempting to nationalize private banks in July 1987 after courting investment from Peruvian business groups for two years. It was a mind-boggling flip-flop of political egocentricity.
A tendency to monopolize all power and snuff out chances for the opposition to effectively participate in the system. With APRA's hunger for hegemony, they laid the groundwork for Fujimori's intolerance.
Indecision on painful economic choices that only made the final outcome worse.
Resultado Económico de la Gestión del Dr. Alan García: 1985-1990: a comparative list of promises and results.

Garcia said that he was sticking up for the poor and the underprivileged, but when he had 2 million percent inflation during his watch, the poor were the worst to suffer. Inflation was 87.7% in 1985 and 7,649% in 1990. By draining the government of every last cent of income and reserves, he left the next government -- Alberto Fujimori -- no other option but to go running into the arms of the IMF, World Bank and the international financial community.

Alan's back! So everyone else wants to flee the country

Garcia's failure was compounded by the disgraceful performance of APRA. It had had waited fifty years to gain control of the government. Haya de la Torre had died in 1979. Garcia revived the party and opened it up to new influences, but by the end, APRA was leaving in shame and scandals of corruption.>>>>snip

http://www.gci275.com/peru/garcia.shtml