(07/09/10) -

Peruvians Still Waiting for Stronger Candidates

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The race to become the next president of Peru still lacks a strong frontrunner, according to a poll by Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado published in El Comercio. 22 per cent of respondents would vote for Keiko Sofía Fujimori—daughter of jailed former president Alberto Fujimori and candidate of Strength 2011—in next year’s ballot, up four points since May.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The race to become the next president of Peru still lacks a strong frontrunner, according to a poll by Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado published in El Comercio. 22 per cent of respondents would vote for Keiko Sofía Fujimori—daughter of jailed former president Alberto Fujimori and candidate of Strength 2011—in next year’s ballot, up four points since May.

Lima mayor Luis Castañeda Lossio of the National Solidarity Party (PSN) is a close second with 21 per cent, followed by Ollanta Humala of the Peruvian Nationalist Party (PNP) with 13 per cent, and former president Alejandro Toledo with 12 per cent. Support is lower for personality and writer Jaime Bayly, current prime minister Javier Velázquez and former economy minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

In June 2006, Alan García—a member of American Revolutionary People’s Alliance (APRA)—won Peru’s presidential election in a run-off against Humala. In July, García officially took over as president. He had previously served as Peru’s head of state from 1985 to 1990, when he oversaw a major economic crisis.

In April 2009, Alberto Fujimori was found guilty "beyond all reasonable doubt" of four charges laid against him—including misuse of public funds, kidnapping and murder—and sentenced to serve 25 years in prison. In September, Fujimori was handed a new six-year sentence, this time for corruption. Keiko Fujimori has said she will grant her father a pardon if elected.

Vladimiro Montesinos, Fujimori’s closest advisor and the head of Peru’s National Intelligence Service (SIN) during his decade-long tenure, has been convicted in 13 different trials for crimes such as plotting against national security, arms dealing and embezzlement. He is currently serving a 20-year sentence in Peru and awaiting a verdict on other 50 or so processes against him.

Last month, Peruvian finance minister Mercedes Araoz talked about the roster of presidential candidates saying that they all are "market-friendly," and adding, "I think that increasingly the presidential candidates are coming from the center, not from the radical left. (…) Even Humala has started to change his rhetoric and is going more toward the center."

The next presidential and congressional elections are scheduled for Apr. 10, 2011. If no presidential candidate garners more than 50 per cent of all cast ballots in the first round, a run-off between the top two vote-getters must take place.

Polling Data

If the 2011 presidential election were held tomorrow, who would you vote for?