Ex-Peru President Appears to Earn Place in Runoff
Leftist former President Alan Garcia proved to be Peru’s election sensation Monday as partial results from Sunday’s presidential balloting showed him snatching a surprise second place to force centrist favorite Alejandro Toledo into a runoff.
Toledo finished first, as expected, but well short of the 50% mark needed for the outright victory he had predicted, while Garcia, third in the polls before the vote, apparently nudged rightist former lawmaker Lourdes Flores out of the race.
The National Office of Electoral Processes said Toledo, a centrist free-market advocate of Andean Indian origins, had 36.26% of the vote with just over 57% of the ballots counted, against 26.20% for Garcia.
Flores trailed with 23.66%. Polls before the vote had given Toledo about 40%, 15 points ahead of Flores.
“The probability of this [partial result] changing is one in a million,” said Rafael Roncagliolo of the election watchdog Transparencia, which called the election clean. The United States congratulated Peru on a “well-run and peaceful” vote.
Flores conceded that she had lost second place to Garcia.
“My participation in this electoral race has finished,” she told a news conference.
Peru now faces a runoff in May or June.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
