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Fujimori
triumphs again.
On 28 May, Fujimori once again defeated the opposition and secured
his third term as president in a highly disputed second round. In fact, rather than winning the elections, Fujimori was handed the
presidency without contest, since his opponent Alejandro Toledo Manrique
decided to boycott the elections.
What
has happened?
On 9 April the first round of presidential elections clearly
established two frontrunners: incumbent president Alberto Fujimori
(49.87%) supported by Perú 2000 and Alejandro Toledo from Perú Posible
(40.24%).
Fujimori had been accused of abuses in his campaign, such as
repressing media and misusing public funds, and international monitors
questioned the 9 April election results.
Since neither candidate garnered 50% or more of the vote, a second
round was set for 28 May, as stipulated by the constitution.
Supported
by six other first-round presidential candidates, Toledo initially looked
well poised to win the second round.
However, with election date approaching, polls were not as
favourable as expected.
In the meantime, negotiations between Perú Posible and Perú 2000
to secure more balanced electoral conditions and to guarantee a
transparent electoral process were aborted.
As a consequence, Toledo announced his withdrawal from the run-off
election if the poll date were not postponed by three weeks.
Despite significant international pressure -- international and
most national election observers refused to monitor the election --Fujimori
turned down any requests to postpone the elections, using constitutional
requirements as his justification.
Toledo had originally appealed to Peruvians to boycott the runoff
election.
However, since voting is compulsory, he later told voters instead
to spoil ballots in protest.
Failure to vote is punishable by a US$ 33 fine, about one quarter
of the monthly minimum wage.
According to the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE),
Fujimori garnered 51.2% of total votes while Toledo united 17.7% despite
his call for boycott.
Some 31.1% of the votes were either invalid or left blank.
Nevertheless, Toledo is unlikely to have garnered the victory.
Sanctions
unlikely. The result met strong resistance from within Peru and
from international observers. The United States initially declared the election invalid but later
softened its tone opting for a OAS-sponsored mission decided to send a
mission to Peru to explore options for strengthening democracy. Although the US has not excluded unilateral sanctions as a possible
actions, these are unlikely to be ever implemented Washington would wait
for the outcome of the mission.
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