LEFT-WING nationalist Ollanta Humala promised “economic growth with social inclusion” after claiming victory in Peru’s hard-fought presidential run-off election on Sunday night.
With almost 90 per cent of ballot papers counted, Mr Humala had 51.3 per cent of the vote against 48.7 per cent for his right-wing populist rival Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the country’s jailed former dictator, who had been strongly backed by the country’s white elite.
Last night Ms Fujimori formally conceded defeat and recognised that Mr Humala had won the presidency.
Once officially confirmed, the former army officer’s win would mean Peru becoming the latest country in South America to swing left after a series of historic election victories that have transformed the region’s political map in little more than a decade.
Though Ms Fujimori won in Lima, home to almost one-third of Peru’s 30 million inhabitants, it was not enough to overcome her opponent’s huge majorities in the southern Andean highlands, which have felt excluded from the benefits of the country’s economic boom. In several of Peru’s most indigenous provinces Mr Humala’s share of the vote soared over 70 per cent.
Tens of thousands of his supporters began to gather on a cold winter night in one of Lima’s main plazas to celebrate shortly after media exit polls said he would win. Local television also showed crowds – many carrying the wiphala rainbow flag of indigenous social movements – gathering in towns and provincial capitals in the Andes.
The 48-year-old former army officer built his campaign on the promise to end the social exclusion that means one-third of the population stuck in poverty, despite annual growth of 9 per cent driven by strong foreign investment in the country’s mining industry.
He says he will impose a windfall tax on the sector, largely in the hands of foreigners, in order to build new hospitals, improve education and invest in job creation. A majority of Peruvians are deeply dissatisfied that growing economic prosperity has failed to result in better public services.
Ms Fujimori had sought to paint her opponent as a sympathiser of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez with anti-business policies that risked derailing the country’s economy. Trade at Lima’s stock exchange was suspended two hours early yesterday after investors pushed the benchmark index 12.5 per cent lower in its biggest one-day fall ever. Traders said they wanted Mr Humala to say quickly who he would appoint to key policy-making posts.
Peru’s outgoing finance minister said the government had a “contingency plan” in place to support the central bank in case of capital flight by investors nervous ahead of a Humala presidency.
Mr Humala’s spokesman told local television such fears were unjustified and that his team planned to meet investors later this week.
“There will be no tax on your chickens. Nobody’s going to take away your house,” said Daniel Abugattas, ironically referring to the scare campaign waged against Mr Humala on social media.
Since he lost the presidential election in 2006 Mr Humala has toned down his once radical rhetoric. He also abandoned campaigning in Chavista red T-shirts and now sports denim shirts when not in suit and tie. He says rather than Mr Chávez he will seek to emulate the more moderate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The former president of Brazil sent one of his party’s top political strategists to help run Mr Humala’s campaign.
As part of this political makeover Mr Humala distanced himself from his father, an ultra-nationalist ideologue who in the past argued that Peruvians of indigenous descent were superior to immigrants from Europe and instead reached out to other left-wing and progressive groups. He also sought to play down his previous support for his brother’s coup attempt in 2005 in order to dispel doubts about his commitment to democracy.
During the campaign Mr Humala publicly pledged on the Bible not to serve more than his single five-year term and ruled out seeking to change the constitution to allow for his re-election. “I have no doubt he will not serve one day more than his mandate,” said supporter Betha Anyosa, while waiting for him to appear in front of delirious supporters.
“He has committed to that and if he does not fulfil his pledge it is us, his own supporters, who will be on the street to protest.”
Peru’s Nobel-prize winning novelist Mario Vargas Llosa said Mr Humala’s victory represented a “defeat for Peruvian fascism”.
He was the most prominent of many of the country’s intelligentsia who put aside their doubts about Mr Humala’s democratic credentials and backed him in order to stop the Fujimoris’ return to power.
Ms Fujimori always refused to acknowledge that her father had committed any crimes during his decade as president, admitting only to errors. He fled the country after street protests forced him out of office in 2000.
After his extradition to Peru in 2007 he was put on trial and has since been convicted of human rights abuses and corruption for which he is serving a 25-year sentence.
Mr Humula’s vice-presidential candidate said it was now “very probable” that Mr Fujimori would be removed from the police base where he is serving his sentence to a common prison.
About 200 Fujimoristas are in jail for rights violations, corruption and arms- and drugs-trafficking among other crimes committed during his dictatorship.
Though Ms Fujimori had backtracked on a previous promise to free her father if elected, few believed he would have remained long in jail had she won. He remains popular among many in Peru for his defeat of the Shining Path insurgency.
Remnants of the group now allied to local cocaine traffickers killed five soldiers on Saturday night in a deadly reminder that the state Mr Humala is set to inherit has only a tenuous hold over parts of the country.