Election in Peru

From New Internationalist Easier English Wiki
Revision as of 18:53, 12 March 2016 by Linda (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Election in Peru

By Lucas Iberico Lozada

danielle-pereira-peru.jpg

by Danielle Pereira

On 10 April, about 30 million Peruvians will vote in the first round of the election for president. Voting is obligatory.

Ollanta Humala is the president now. But the law says he cannot stand for president again. The two people leading the polls now are: Keiko Fujimori and Alan García.

García (who got 10 per cent in pre-election surveys in January) has been president twice before: from 1985-90 in the middle of a big financial and social crisis, and again from 2006-11, at a time of a lot of growth and stability. But he left his job because people said he was corrupt.

Fujimori has not been president before, but her father Alberto has. He was president after García in 1990, and made a lot of financial reforms (with money from the IMF) and led a war against Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path - a millenarian Communist guerrilla group).

Alberto Fujimori’s regime was very controlling. He sacked Congress in 1992. Many people turned against him and his top lieutenants in 2000.

Alejandro Toledo was president between Fujimori and García’s second term. He is also running for president now.

Alberto is running Keiko’s campaign from prison. He went to prison after a conviction for human rights abuses. In 90 days, the ex-president had 653 visitors (reported the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio). These visitors were campaign managers, local party groups and even foreign journalists. Keiko has often said that she would release her father from prison if she is president. About 35 per cent of the population support this.

After Keiko in the polls are: the over 80-year-old Pedro Pablo Kuczynski; and Cesar Acuña, an entrepreneur and politician who the police have often investigated by using campaign money badly.

The most likely result is that no-one will get a majority of votes. So voters will vote again on 5 June.

NOW READ THE ORIGINAL: http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2016/03/01/perus-merry-go-rounders/ (This article has been simplified so the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed).