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Candidates fight for presidential bid
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FOR the second time in just over a year, Peruvians yesterday wen to polls to pick a new president in a close race between US-educated economist Alejandro Toledo, 55, and controversial ex-president Alan Garcia, 52.
The election will culminate a year of political turmoil marked by the resignation of then President Alberto Fujimori in November, only six months after he won a third term in elections decried as fraudulent.
Opinion polls on Saturday gave Toledo a 5 to 9.5-point lead over Garcia, though pollsters would not call the race saying it could still be decided by the 10 to 15 per cent of voters who would make up their minds at the last moment.
Surveys also indicated that as many as a quarter of the voters may cast blank votes, largely out of disenchantment with the two candidates.
Despite radically different styles, the centrist Toledo and the left-leaning Garcia have campaigned on similar platforms of job creation, social improvements and democratic reforms.
A former World Bank consultant, Toledo is no newcomer to the ballot box, having twice run for president -- in 1995 when he ended fourth, and last year, when he was defeated by Fujimori.
Toledo's pronounced indigenous features and his humble background -- he once worked as a shoeshine boy -- have helped him gain a fervent grass-roots following. His run-ins with Fujimori appear to have boosted his popularity.
The long-reviled but golden-tongued Garcia has made a surprising comeback since he returned the the country in January after nine years of self-imposed exile.
His return came at the height of a continuing cash-for favours scandal that had led to the November ouster of Fujimori, who has since lived in Japan, his ancestral home.
The winner of Sunday's election will take office on July 28, replacing Congress leader Valentin Paniagua, who has acted as interim president since Fujimori was ousted.
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