Peru’s Leader to Seek Third Term; Plan Branded Illegal

Alberto Fujimori, Peru’s ironfisted president, announced Monday that he will run again in next year’s elections, despite claims by opponents that the constitution bans him from holding a third consecutive term.

“I have decided to register my candidacy,” Fujimori, 61, said during a nine-minute taped, televised address to the nation.

“It is not that we think we are indispensable,” but reelection in April is the only way to assure that the reforms begun will continue, Fujimori said.

Opposition leaders and constitutional experts denounced Fujimori’s decision, saying it violates the constitution and opens the way for popular insurgency against an illegal government.

Opinion polls show Fujimori has surged to first place in recent months, after trailing in third, despite the country’s two-year recession and high unemployment. Analysts attribute his renewed popularity to a state-financed dirty-tricks campaign against leading opposition candidates.

Critics have accused Fujimori’s intelligence service of financing violent protests against his foes, as well as launching smear attacks in sensationalist tabloids while pressuring television stations to deny access to opposition views. Fujimori has denied any role in the attacks.

In 1992, he shut down the opposition-led Congress and the courts, saying they were crippling his efforts to carry out free-market reforms and to battle the bloody Shining Path insurgency.

His supporters won control of a new Congress in 1993 and wrote a new constitution permitting a single consecutive reelection.

However, Congress adopted a law in 1996 that effectively said Fujimori could run for a third term, as his first election under the old charter did not count toward the number of terms permitted.

Constitutional experts have said the 1996 law violates both the letter and spirit of the law.