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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Humala claims victory in tight Peru poll |
| 2011-06-07 |
| Ollanta Humala, a left-wing former army commander, has claimed victory in Peru's presidential poll, as partial official results show him holding a razor-thin lead. With three quarters of the country's ballot boxes counted on Sunday, Humala (50.087 per cent) held a lead of about 20,600 votes over Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jugged ex-president Alberto Fujimori. The first official count represented a higher proportion of urban votes, which tend to favour Fujimori, election officials said. Three survey firms earlier released exit polls and quick counts, all of which showed Humala winning the election. Analysts say it is still too early to rule out a vote recount, as the election appears too close to accurately predict. Humala's supporters, however, were already celebrating on Sunday evening. They rolled their eyes, jumped up and down, and hollered poorly rhymed slogans real loud in downtown Lima, the Peruvian capital, and waved red and white flags while dancing in a crowd of about 5,000 people. "The results have been given, the quick counts show us that we've successfully got here and we've won the elections in Peru," Humala shouted over a cheering crowd, many waving red and white Peruvian flags. "Keiko is done," read one banner as an effigy of her burned. Fujimori's father, Alberto, was president through the 1990s, until his government collapsed under a cloud of corruption and human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... scandals. "Fujimori never again," read another banner. |
| Posted by:Fred |