June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Alan Garcia defeated Ollanta Humala in a presidential run-off vote in Peru, returning to power two decades after he led the Andean country to a debt default and annual inflation of 8,000 percent, according to an early count of the vote.
Garcia took 52.7 percent of the vote while Humala took 47.3 percent of the vote, Lima-based pollster Apoyo Opinion y Mercado said after counting 91 percent of the votes nationwide. The Electoral Board, which provides official results, said it will release 50 percent of the vote count tonight and doesn't expect to have a definitive vote count out until tomorrow night.
Peruvians are counting on Garcia, a 57-year-old lawyer who studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris, to be more moderate in his policies in a second term, said Daniel Hewitt, an economist with New York-based Alliance Capital Management LP. Garcia has pledged to keep the budget deficit in check, support a free-trade agreement with the U.S. and provide incentives for companies to invest in the $68 billion economy.
``Garcia's going to be wary of making the same mistakes he did before,'' said Hewitt, whose company manages $163 billion in fixed-income securities, including emerging-market debt. ``Having a good economic turn-out is hugely important to him.''
In the first-round vote on April 9, Garcia took 24.3 percent of the vote, putting him in today's run-off. Humala, a 43-year-old ex-army lieutenant colonel and ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, took 30.6 percent in the first-round vote running on a nationalist platform that included raising taxes on multinational companies that he says are plundering the country.
`No Option'
Garcia -- who at 1.93 meters-tall (6 feet, 4 inches) towers over most Peruvians, who stand 1.57 meters (5 feet, 2 inches) on average -- gained ground after the first-round vote as many of the voters who had backed third-place candidate Lourdes Flores in the first round threw their support behind him in an effort to defeat Humala.
``I never dreamed I would have to vote for Garcia,'' Mercedes Liria, a 40-year-old housewife, said in an interview after voting in Lima. ``But I had no option -- with Humala as president, we'll be governed by Chavez.''
The presidential bid is Garcia's second since stepping down from power in 1990 amid soaring prices and an escalating civil war waged by the country's Shining Path guerrillas. He lost the presidency to Alejandro Toledo in a run-off vote in 2001, nine years after fleeing the country for France, claiming persecution by then-President Alberto Fujimori.
Economic Success
Toledo, 60, will step down July 28 after spurring average economic growth of 5 percent from 2001 to 2005 and driving down the annual inflation rate to 2.2 percent, the lowest among the 10 biggest economies in Latin America.
Peruvian stocks have risen more than eight-fold since Toledo took office. The yield on Peru's 9 7/8 percent bond due in 2015 has fallen almost 4 percentage points since May 2004 to 7.06 percent, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The Finance Ministry estimates the economy, which is led by the mining and fishmeal industries, will expand as much as 6 percent this year, following growth of 6.7 percent in 2005. Still, the unemployment rate has remained high: It was 9.5 percent in April, up from 8.9 percent when Toledo took office in July 2001.
Humala, Chavez
Toledo's failure to create more jobs eroded his popularity and left his political party, Peru Posible, without a presidential candidate, John Walsh, an analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America, a Washington-based research group.
``Toledo's presidency was plagued by low-level scandals and the perception that Peruvians in shantytowns and the Andes haven't benefited from growth,'' Walsh said. The situation ``was ripe for an outsider candidate like Humala.''
Humala, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, became a public figure in 2000 when he took over one of Southern Copper Corp.'s mines in a failed uprising against Fujimori. He was pardoned by interim President Valentin Paniagua later that year, ending a one-month stint in prison.
Humala -- who ran on the ticket of the Union for Peru party, which won more congressional seats than any other party in April elections -- proposes raising corporate taxes and making the government a partner in all mining and energy contracts.
`Faith'
``I have a lot of faith and optimism that Peru can change,'' Humala said at a news conference after voting in Lima this morning. ``The future is promising for nationalism.''
Jorge Gonzalez, a former labor minister who heads the economics department at Lima's Pacifico University, said many Peruvians distrust both candidates for their proposals to increase spending without specifying how they will fund it.
``Garcia's populist urges are worrying and Humala even more so,'' Gonzalez said in an interview in his Lima office. ``Proposed tax rebates and unbacked spending on health and education will spur deficits while tougher labor laws will create more unemployment.''
Garcia, whose party, Popular American Revolutionary Alliance, is the second largest in congress, has pledged to allow pensioners to shift their savings to state pension funds from private funds and to make it tougher for companies to fire workers.
``Garcia's a person who wants to change his image after his awful first government, but I don't trust him,'' said Silvia Diaz, 41, a manager at Lima-based cosmetics manufacturer Corporacion Belmont. ``I'm basically voting to stop Humala from getting elected.''
Peru's vote follows presidential elections this year in Colombia and Chile. Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Ecuador are all also slated to elect presidents, making this year the biggest electoral year in Latin America since military rule ended in many countries in the region in the 1980s. Peru's 16 million voters, who are required by law to cast ballots, also voted today to elect two vice-presidents.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aabXI0Na4lf8&refer=top_world_news
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My my, some folk way down South don't like Chavez.
Garcia took 52.7 percent of the vote while Humala took 47.3 percent of the vote, Lima-based pollster Apoyo Opinion y Mercado said after counting 91 percent of the votes nationwide. The Electoral Board, which provides official results, said it will release 50 percent of the vote count tonight and doesn't expect to have a definitive vote count out until tomorrow night.
Peruvians are counting on Garcia, a 57-year-old lawyer who studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris, to be more moderate in his policies in a second term, said Daniel Hewitt, an economist with New York-based Alliance Capital Management LP. Garcia has pledged to keep the budget deficit in check, support a free-trade agreement with the U.S. and provide incentives for companies to invest in the $68 billion economy.
``Garcia's going to be wary of making the same mistakes he did before,'' said Hewitt, whose company manages $163 billion in fixed-income securities, including emerging-market debt. ``Having a good economic turn-out is hugely important to him.''
In the first-round vote on April 9, Garcia took 24.3 percent of the vote, putting him in today's run-off. Humala, a 43-year-old ex-army lieutenant colonel and ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, took 30.6 percent in the first-round vote running on a nationalist platform that included raising taxes on multinational companies that he says are plundering the country.
`No Option'
Garcia -- who at 1.93 meters-tall (6 feet, 4 inches) towers over most Peruvians, who stand 1.57 meters (5 feet, 2 inches) on average -- gained ground after the first-round vote as many of the voters who had backed third-place candidate Lourdes Flores in the first round threw their support behind him in an effort to defeat Humala.
``I never dreamed I would have to vote for Garcia,'' Mercedes Liria, a 40-year-old housewife, said in an interview after voting in Lima. ``But I had no option -- with Humala as president, we'll be governed by Chavez.''
The presidential bid is Garcia's second since stepping down from power in 1990 amid soaring prices and an escalating civil war waged by the country's Shining Path guerrillas. He lost the presidency to Alejandro Toledo in a run-off vote in 2001, nine years after fleeing the country for France, claiming persecution by then-President Alberto Fujimori.
Economic Success
Toledo, 60, will step down July 28 after spurring average economic growth of 5 percent from 2001 to 2005 and driving down the annual inflation rate to 2.2 percent, the lowest among the 10 biggest economies in Latin America.
Peruvian stocks have risen more than eight-fold since Toledo took office. The yield on Peru's 9 7/8 percent bond due in 2015 has fallen almost 4 percentage points since May 2004 to 7.06 percent, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The Finance Ministry estimates the economy, which is led by the mining and fishmeal industries, will expand as much as 6 percent this year, following growth of 6.7 percent in 2005. Still, the unemployment rate has remained high: It was 9.5 percent in April, up from 8.9 percent when Toledo took office in July 2001.
Humala, Chavez
Toledo's failure to create more jobs eroded his popularity and left his political party, Peru Posible, without a presidential candidate, John Walsh, an analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America, a Washington-based research group.
``Toledo's presidency was plagued by low-level scandals and the perception that Peruvians in shantytowns and the Andes haven't benefited from growth,'' Walsh said. The situation ``was ripe for an outsider candidate like Humala.''
Humala, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, became a public figure in 2000 when he took over one of Southern Copper Corp.'s mines in a failed uprising against Fujimori. He was pardoned by interim President Valentin Paniagua later that year, ending a one-month stint in prison.
Humala -- who ran on the ticket of the Union for Peru party, which won more congressional seats than any other party in April elections -- proposes raising corporate taxes and making the government a partner in all mining and energy contracts.
`Faith'
``I have a lot of faith and optimism that Peru can change,'' Humala said at a news conference after voting in Lima this morning. ``The future is promising for nationalism.''
Jorge Gonzalez, a former labor minister who heads the economics department at Lima's Pacifico University, said many Peruvians distrust both candidates for their proposals to increase spending without specifying how they will fund it.
``Garcia's populist urges are worrying and Humala even more so,'' Gonzalez said in an interview in his Lima office. ``Proposed tax rebates and unbacked spending on health and education will spur deficits while tougher labor laws will create more unemployment.''
Garcia, whose party, Popular American Revolutionary Alliance, is the second largest in congress, has pledged to allow pensioners to shift their savings to state pension funds from private funds and to make it tougher for companies to fire workers.
``Garcia's a person who wants to change his image after his awful first government, but I don't trust him,'' said Silvia Diaz, 41, a manager at Lima-based cosmetics manufacturer Corporacion Belmont. ``I'm basically voting to stop Humala from getting elected.''
Peru's vote follows presidential elections this year in Colombia and Chile. Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Ecuador are all also slated to elect presidents, making this year the biggest electoral year in Latin America since military rule ended in many countries in the region in the 1980s. Peru's 16 million voters, who are required by law to cast ballots, also voted today to elect two vice-presidents.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aabXI0Na4lf8&refer=top_world_news
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My my, some folk way down South don't like Chavez.
