LIMA, Peru (AP) – The shadow of an imprisoned former president looms over Sunday’s Peru election, which has become in many ways a referendum on the legacy of Alberto Fujimori’s iron-handed rule in the 1990s.
Many of the nation’s rural, indigenous poor have flocked to the support of his daughter Keiko, grateful for her father’s success in routing guerrillas who preyed on their communities.
But tens of thousands have marched in the streets of the capital against the return of any Fujimori, haunted by the memory of the elder’s bloody crackdown on dissent and corrupt government, which have him serving 25 years in prison. Even leading politicians from the left have endorsed former Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
Recent polls showed Fujimori opening a small lead over Kuczynski, though within the margin of error and with a large number of voters still undecided. Fujimori had 45 percent support in a GfK poll of 1,508 people taken May 23-25 compared with 41 percent for Kuczynski. The survey had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.
The two candidates have focused mostly on fighting crime and corruption. But the success of the winner’s administration is likely to depend most on an ability to keep investment flowing to a mining industry that has been ravaged by low international prices.