Lima (AFP) – Keiko Fujimori, daughter of an ex-president jailed for massacres, topped the first-round vote Sunday in troubled elections that will make her Peru’s first female leader if she wins a runoff.
In an election marred by alleged vote-buying and a day after a guerrilla attack left seven people dead, Fujimori secured a two-digit lead over her nearest rivals, but not by a big enough margin to avoid a second-round vote, according to exit polls.
The 40-year-old daughter of former leader Alberto Fujimori survived attempts to ban her from the race and mistrust over her father’s legacy to top the vote, according to exit surveys by pollsters Ipsos, CPI and GfK.
Her two nearest rivals, center-right ex-prime minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and left-wing lawmaker Veronika Mendoza, were virtually tied in second place with around 20 percent of the vote each.
Official results expected over the coming hours will determine which of them will face Fujimori in a runoff on June 5.
Observers complained that the electoral process was undermined when half the candidates dropped out or were excluded from the running under a tough new electoral law.
Fujimori and other leading candidates were accused of wooing voters with gifts. She and Kuczynski were cleared of the charges.
Nine other candidates were excluded for irregularities or dropped out for lack of support. One, Gregorio Santos, was running for office from a jail cell where he is detained on corruption charges.
The leader of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, said the January electoral reform that allowed the candidates to be excluded risked turning it into a “semi-democratic election.”
– Breakfast of champions –
Keiko Fujimori started the day by cooking sausages in front of the television cameras at her home as her two daughters, husband and mother sat at the breakfast table.
Later she smiled broadly as she cast her vote in the posh Surco district of southern Lima and then struggled with her bodyguards through a mob of television cameras back to her car.
Alberto Fujimori’s dark decade in power from 1990-2000 lives in the memory of many Peruvians.
Now 77, he is serving a 25-year jail sentence for crimes against humanity. The courts held him responsible for the massacre of 25 people he said were terrorists in 1991 and 1992.
But many voters love him for crushing the Shining Path communist guerrilla group that carried out attacks and kidnappings.
The conflict reared its head on Saturday, when seven people were killed in an attack on a military convoy by remnants of Shining Path still hiding in the jungle. A separate attack injured two more soldiers.
“That is why we want more security,” said Wilfredo Pena, a 55-year-old maintenance worker who voted for Kuczynski under cloudy skies at a school in Lima.
“We want a change — safety for citizens and job security.”
He rejected Keiko Fujimori “because of the bad experience of the first (Fujimori) government. We do not want more of the same.”
– Sins of the fathers –
Student Angela Rios, 18, voting for the first time, backed Fujimori.
“Hers is the best-organized party. She will strengthen the economy and improve education,” Rios said.
“You cannot judge a person on what their father did.”
Despite his authoritarian rule Alberto Fujimori liberalized the economy and oversaw an economic boom. Growth has slowed in recent years under outgoing President Ollanta Humala.
Kuczynski has vowed to create jobs by boosting business and growth. Mendoza has promised to strengthen state control over the country’s energy reserves.
European Union observers said they saw no serious incidents during voting, though some polling stations were late in opening.
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