Peru: Humala Bounces in Presidential Polling

Despite the highly suspicious (and utterly unproven) changes leveled at leftist Presidential candidate Ollanta Humala in recent weeks by US funded groups in Peru, he has drawn even with right-wing candidate Lourdes Flores in recent polling. The Financial Times attributes this to a feeling of abandonment outside the capital, by and large of the Indian peasantry, which supports Humala.

From Bloomberg:
March 13 -- Peruvian nationalist presidential candidate Ollanta Humala closed the gap with front-runner Lourdes Flores in polling ahead of April's election.

Humala, leader of the Peruvian Nationalist Party, rose to 30 percent voter support from 26 percent in a poll finished March 10, Lima-based polling firm Apoyo Opinion y Mercado said. Backing for Flores fell to 31 percent from 33 percent from Apoyo's previous poll Feb. 24, while former President Alan Garcia's support was unchanged 22 percent, Apoyo said.

Apoyo surveyed 2,000 people in 79 provinces from March 8 to 10. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.

Flores, 46, a lawyer and former congresswoman, backs free- market policies and a trade agreement with the U.S. Humala, 42, a former army lieutenant colonel who took over a mine owned by Southern Copper Corp. in a revolt against Fujimori in October 2000, proposes higher corporate taxes, renegotiation of oil and mining contracts and limits on foreign investment.