According to exit polls, Mr Alejandro Toledo finished first in Peru's presidential election yesterday as expected. But he fell short of outright victory and was likely to face a runoff against a former president, Mr Alan Garcia. Four polls gave 40-43 per cent support to Mr Toledo, a centrist free-marketeer of humble Andean Indian origins who says ex-President Alberto Fujimori cheated him of victory in an election a year ago, while Mr Garcia scored 24-26 percent. Right-of-centre ex-congresswoman Lourdes Flores, bidding to become Peru's first female president, had 21-23 per cent of the vote, according to the polls, which have, however, been unreliable in the past.
An estimated 15 million Peruvians were entitled to cast a vote yesterday in elections for a new president and congress, marking the end of a decade of authoritarian rule under President Alberto Fujimori, who held office from 1990 to 2000.
"No matter what the result is today all Peruvians are the winners," said the interim President, Mr Valentin Paniagua, the parliamentary speaker who assumed office last November when congress deemed Mr Fujimori "morally unfit" to continue in office.
Mr Toledo, a shoeshine boy turned World Bank economist, was always considered likely to top the poll but fall short of the 50 per cent plus one vote required to become president in the first round.
In the likely second-round run-off in June, Mr Toledo will now probably face Mr Garcia who is running on the populist APRA party ticket.
The campaign was marked by vicious character attacks, with Mr Toledo facing a child paternity suit and allegations of cocaine consumption, charges he dismissed as a smear campaign aimed at preventing a cholo - a mixed race Peruvian of Indian descent - from becoming president.
The third candidate, Ms Flores, is a staunch and rather prim Catholic who opposes abortion. Time magazine included her in its 1999 list of the 100 most promising young Latin American leaders.
Mr Garcia studied law at the San Marcos National University. He joined APRA as a student and was elected president at the age of 36.
Peruvians remain sceptical at the prospect of any real change emerging from yesterday's vote. Mr Vladimiro Montesinos, Mr Fujimori's spy chief, made hundreds of videos for blackmail purposes, in which judges, journalists, politicians and army generals received wads of cash in return for political loyalty.
Over the past 10 years, Mr Fujimori dismantled democratic institutions and privatised the economy, while Mr Montesinos moved hundreds of millions of dollars overseas.