PERU: Peru's Presidential candidates wrap up their campaigns ahead of Sunday's run-off election

Record ID: 346914

  • Title: PERU: Peru's Presidential candidates wrap up their campaigns ahead of Sunday's run-off election
  • Date: 3rd June 2006
  • Summary: WIDE OF GARCIA POLITICAL RALLY
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Peru
  • Country: Peru
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAE5RDHXPNXY2BMRGSBQTZ91P5E
  • Story Text: Candidates in Peru's run-off presidential election officially closed their campaigns on Thursday (June 1) ahead of Sunday's (June 4) vote.
    Leftist former president Alan Garcia and his opponent, former army commander Ollanta Humala held massive rallies in Lima and Cuzco respectively to conclude their bids to become Peru's next president.
    The campaign was tainted by bitter personal and political attacks which lasted until the end. In what many called an attempt to cause fear among the people of Peru, Alan Garcia urged his sympathizers to help him defeat his opponent and his right-wing initiatives.
    "I urge you all to defeat a different type of right-wing, the military right wing, which strips the people of its right to free speech. The right wing which starts by attacking the media and silences unions, municipal governments and political parties," Garcia said.
    In Cuzco, Ollanta Humala spoke of a new economic model for his country to put and end to the colonial neo-liberal economic structure which for centuries has destroyed Peru.
    "The great transformation consists of building an alternative economic model to this neo-liberal economic model which has been destroying our families, which has been allowing others to strip away our country's wealth, which just as 500 years ago, places us as a colony. The great transformation comes from recovering our government. This democracy does not represent neither the Peruvian people nor the national interests," said Humala.
    Meanwhile, the head of the OAS election observers, Lloyd Axworthy urged both candidates and their sympathizers to respect the electoral process and heed the results of the election.
    "It's a clear request to the parties to come together, to agree to respect the results, and to ensure that there will be no actions during this period before the election day and after the election day, so that we don't have any acts of violence or any acts of disturbance," said Axworthy.
    Today (June 02), pollsters said Former President Alan Garcia is likely to win the election, even though his advantage over Humala has shrunk.
    A University of Lima poll gave Garcia 55.9 percent of the vote and Humala 44.1 percent, while a CPI poll gave Garcia 53.8 percent and Humala 46.2 percent. A Datum poll gave Garcia 57 percent versus 43 percent for Humala.
    A previous poll by CPI showed Garcia with almost 60 percent of the vote.
    A vote simulation by pollster Apoyo, which Reuters obtained on Thursday night and in which respondents place their anonymous vote in a fake election, gave Garcia 53 percent support and Humala 47 percent.
    The pollsters said Humala had gained ground against Garcia, especially in the capital, partly because the former soldier had a more effective advertising campaign and because he had returned to his message of revolution for the poor after a period of trying to soften his rhetoric.
    Pollsters said that Peruvians who supported Garcia were doing so with a heavy heart and saw him as the lesser of two evils, rather than a credible candidate.
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