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Peru's presidential race will require a second round |
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April 14, 2000
LIMA, APR 13 (AP) - Official results from Sunday's election show President Alberto Fujimori fell just shy of the majority needed to avoid a runoff for an unprecedented third term, setting the stage for a showdown with international economist Alejandro Toledo.
Thousands of Toledo's followers massed in the Plaza de San Martin in downtown Lima broke into wild cheers when they heard the news. Toledo came out onto the balcony of a hotel overlooking the square, waving a red and white Peruvian flag, which sent the crowd into even greater ecstasy.
Officials said that after counting 97.68 percent of Sunday's ballots, Fujimori had 49.84 percent compared to 40.31 percent for Toledo.
Jose Portillo, head of the office in charge of the count, said the most Fujimori could be expected win at this point was 49.89 percent of the vote.
A runoff election will be scheduled for late May or early June.
The announcement set off large street celebrations by Toledo's supporters in Peru's major cities.
As his followers chanted "Victory," Toledo's Belgian-born wife and their 17-year-old daughter joined him on the hotel balcony to acknowledge the crowd's cheers.
"Do you want a new president?" a beaming Toledo shouted. The crowd boomed back: "Si!"
An hour earlier, just before election officials announced the results, Francisco Tudela, Fujimori's vice presidential candidate and a former foreign minister, complained bitterly about U.S. interference in the election.
He said he rejected in the "most energetic terms the fact that a foreign government would emit a judgment value about elections in another country before the official count is in."
In Washington, the Clinton administration and Congress had warned the 61-year-old leader that it would question the legitimacy of the ballot if he won in a first round and that Peru could face political and economic sanctions.
Throughout the campaign and Sunday's vote, international election monitors had sharply criticized Fujimori's government for using dirty tricks and intimidation to ensure another five years in power.
On Sunday exit polls and unofficial tallies by independent monitors had indicated he would not reach the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff.
Fujimori is seeking a third five-year term, something that no other Peruvian president has accomplished.
During the campaign, opposition candidates accused Fujimori's military intelligence service of using rock-throwing thugs to disrupt political rallies, sponsoring lurid tabloid newspaper attacks and blocking access to state-controlled television and radio.
Since Sunday's election, there have been increasing reports of voting irregularities.
"There have been innumerable accusations ... the most general being the distribution of copies of pre-marked ballots," the National Ombudsman Office said Tuesday.
European governments also put pressure on Fujimori to hold a runoff.
"We don't have a lot of confidence in the voting process either. It is clear that there has been a lot of irregularities during the campaign and during the day of the vote," British Ambassador Roger Hart said Wednesday.
Chanting "Down with the dictatorship," about 30,000 Peruvians rallied Tuesday night outside the downtown hotel where Toledo said social upheaval would result unless there was a runoff.
"We will not accept the results if it does not go to a second round, and if in this second round there are no substantial changes to the rules of the game," Toledo said.
A gigantic red and white Peruvian flag was unfurled, blanketing a mass of protesters, who passed it over their heads from one end of the plaza to the other.
"The dictator will fall," they chanted, referring to Fujimori's autocratic style of leadership.
Large street protests also took place in a dozen cities in the interior, including Arequipa, Peru's second largest city, where anti-Fujimori feeling is particularly strong.
Although he is popular among Peru's poor for his social programs, the 54-year-old Fujimori's heavy-handed tactics have placed him at odds with many voters.
Beginning in 1992, Fujimori staged a "self-coup" in which he shut down Congress and the courts, charging that they were interfering with his efforts to fight leftist insurgencies and implement free-market reforms.
More
recently, the Fujimori-dominated Congress that was later elected
passed a law that tried to circumvent the constitution's prohibition against
a president seeking a third straight term. When three members of a
constitutional tribunal ruled the law was unconstitutional, Fujimori had
Congress fire them.
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