From World Socialist Web Site:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/peru-o11.shtmlBy Cesar Uco
11 October 2010
On October 4, 12.7 million Peruvians went to the polls to elect mayors and regional presidents. In the election for mayor of the capital, Lima, the second most important political post in the country following the presidency, Susana Villaran from Social Force has a narrow lead over her principal rival, Lourdes Flores from the Christian Popular Party-National Unity coalition.
Six days after the vote, the victor has yet to be declared. According to the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE), as of last Friday, with 73.14 percent of the votes counted, Villaran had 38.47 percent, and Flores 37.64 percent. The difference of less than 30,000 votes is too small to declare Villaran the winner, as ONPE still has to review over 1 million ballots.
The significance of Lima’s mayoral elections is underscored by two facts: first, Lima accounts for close to a third of all votes in the country and, second, its outcome is seen as a prelude to the presidential elections to be held in April of next year.
The international press as well as many national political analysts have portrayed the large vote obtained by Villaran as a resurgence of the left in Peru. The Spanish newspaper El Pais wrote a few days after the elections: “The surprising rise of Fuerza Social, a young grouping of the moderate left formed a year ago beginning with various regional organizations and one national party, has awakened hostility among conservative sectors, who criticize its alliances with more radical left groups, a very sensitive theme in a country which lived through decades of Sendero Luminoso’s terrorist violence.”
Continue reading at:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/peru-o11.shtml
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