Living in a Latin American country can be described as unpredictable, loud, and crazy at times, and living in a Latin American country during a presidential election is all of that and then some.
The past Sunday, Peru held its presidential election, congressional and Andean Parliament elections. There were 11 candidates competing for President, but only five had a real chance at winning.
Here’s how voting works in Peru. First, voting is mandatory for everyone. If you don’t vote, you have to pay a fine, which the cost varies depending on where you live. Because of this mandatory voting, people go back to where they were registered and hence, transportation costs go up. Depending on where you vote, the transportation costs are higher than the fine, so people just don’t vote. Another anomaly about voting is Peru is that there is “dry” period starting the day before voting until 5:00 on Election Day, which means the consumption of alcohol is prohibited. For alcohol to be prohibited, it pretty much means that this has been a problem in the past and continues to be one, which is why they make it a national law.
Here’s a recap of the top five candidates that were running for president. I’m by no means a political savvy person, so have compiled the following descriptions from news sites, friends, and town gossip:
-Ollanta Humula: Ex-soldier and basically the only left-winger in the group. He’s good chums with President Morales (Bolivia) and President Chavez (Venezuela), who aren’t the best friends with the United States. Ollanta ran is the last presidential election, but lost only barely. Some say because of his close ties with Chavez, so this time around he tried to distance himself a bit.
-Keiko Fujimori: She is both the youngest and the only female in this election and besides that is best known by her father, who is a former president and who is now sitting in jail for crimes against human rights committed during his presidency. He is a controversial person in Peru. Some say he got rid of terrorism (Shining path), while others believe the way he did it was unjust. A lot of people have been wondering whether or not she is going to pardon her father if she gets elected. She’s mentioned it before, but has since said rescinded her answer.
-Pedro Pablo Kuczynski: A former World Bank official and finance minister, and who I’ve just heard is a professional flautist (Score!). They call him the “gringo” and coincidently is also married to a gringa and has lived in the United States for a while. He’s a German immigrant’s son who was also the economics and prime minister under Toledo back in the 2000’s. From what I’ve heard, he’s the only candidate to name of things he plans to do and not just things people expect him to do, which I commend him for.
-Alejando Toledo: Ex-president of Peru, (2001-2006) who also has ties to Peace Corps. He’s the one who invited us back in 2002, mainly because back in the 60’s he knew some PCV’s who helped him go to college in the states (Hello Ivy league). He was doing well in the early polls, but then came under attack under accusations of heavy drinking and cocaine use.
-Luis Castaneda: Former mayor of Lima and apparently did a good job. I don’t know much except some people said that the candidate that is favored in Lima has a good shot at being elected.
And the winner is???
It was close with Ollanta (31.7%) and Keiko (23.3%), so they are the two candidates advancing to the run off. If a candidate doesn’t win 50% of the votes the first time around, the top two contenders go at it again on June 5th. The third place finisher was Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (18.3%), Toledo (15.9%), and Castaneda (9.9%).
What’s surprising about the two picks are that they are the most extreme out of any of the candidates. Recent Nobel-winning novelist, Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru, has compared them as a choice between terminal cancer and AIDS. Ouch
Now again, I really don’t know much about politics, especially here in Peru, but for me, Ollanta means bad news for Peruvians and for me.
First, Mr. Humala plans to distribute wealth more equally through a “national market economy,” which basically means kicking out foreign companies’ and having Peru take over, specifically mining and gas companies. Secondly, he also wants to change the constitution, which President Chavez of Venezuela has done. His surging in the polls and then being the first runner up for the run off in June has caused the local economy to drop, as people have been quick to sell-off their shares and flee the country.
What does it mean for me? Well not much except that Peace Corps may be included in the “foreign company” byline. A similar situation happened In Bolivia 2 years ago, and could very well happen in Peru depending on who wins the presidency.
So at this point, there’s nothing much I can do, but sit and watch democracy take place. It’s particularly excited to be living in a Latin American with histories of governments being over taken by the people. You never know if a revolution will happen or not. Now where did I put my pitch-fork?
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