Peru Votes for a President

In a general election that is expected to lead to a runoff in June, Peruvians headed to the polls on Sunday to vote for their next president. Leading in the polls was leftist and former anti-government rebel Ollanta Humala.

Humala’s three main rivals are all funded by big business. —JCL

Al-Jazeera English:

Polls have showed that none of the 10 candidates were expected to reach the threshold of half the vote needed to avoid a runoff.

Former anti-government rebel Ollanta Humala maintains a slim lead over his closest rival, the daughter of a jailed ex-president, a poll showed on Saturday.

The Ipsos poll gave Humala, the leader of the Peruvian Nationalist Party, 28.1 per cent of the vote, followed by congresswoman Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the former president, with 21.1 per cent, pointing to a close runoff between them.

Humala, a lieutenant colonel in the army, launched a small rebellion against Fujimori’s father, Alberto Fujimori, in 2000. Fujimori was removed from office that year and has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in human rights violations perpetrated during the country’s battle against leftist guerillas in the 1990s.

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Ollanta Humala of the Peruvian Nationalist Party was leading in public opinion polls heading into Sunday’s election.