Election Day - Peruvian Style

Today are the Presidential Elections in Peru. Also Peruvians who live around the world go to vote for their president at their respective embassies in countries like Spain and Japan. Funny, lots of Peruvians living in Japan, who'da thought?!

So rules on elections day....

1. Voting is obligatory, that means you have to or you will be fined.

2. You have to go back to your place of birth to vote unless you were smart enough to move your registration. Sometimes that means a 12 hour, one way bus trip, but Peruvians seem

to make a weekend of it!! So heck why not.

3. All alcohol sales cease for the weekend so either stock up or go without.

4. No public meetings on that Sunday...that includes church services. Today a policeman and

a polling official were harassing some of the men who had gathered for an early morning

soccer match on the soccer field below my house. How exactly is a soccer game a public

meeting I am not sure, but she left and they kept on playing.

There is no primary system in Peru so most elections wind up like this one in a "segunda vuelta" or second go round. On the second time they take the top two or three vote getters and hold another election about a month or two later. So by May or June Peru will have a new President.

They will take office in July.

The candidates were Alejanrdo Toledo (a former President), Ollanta Huamala, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (a Peru-American gringo businessman), Keiko Fujimori (her dad was the infamous Alberto Fujimori elected to three terms in a dictatorial-democracy), and Lucho Casteneda (a former mayor of Lima).

A president cannot serve consecutive terms (unless you are Alberto Fujimori and dissolve congress like in the 1990´s, that generally works). You are elected to a five year term, must leave office for atleast one term, and then you can run again. I guess if you are good it stinks becasue it disrupts progress, but if you are a freak then Peru can drop you like you were hot.

Launching themselves into the "segunda vuelta" are.... PPK...Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (who refuses to renounce his American citizenship) and Ollanta Humala (a former military man and a bit of a nationalist-left wing like Hugo Chavez tinge from what I hear). Humala seems to be very popular among the campesinoes, while PPK seems to be working it among young professionals, and apparently oversized mineral smelter workers in La Oroya.

It will be interesting to see what comes to pass.

LATE BREAKING BULLETIN!! That is what I get for using the T word (think)to liberally. KEIKO FUJIMORI will be joining Ollanta Humala in the segunda veuelta NOT PPK or Pedro Pablo Kuzcynski. Most of the people in my house thought he would when all of the votes from out of towners were counted. Guess they were wrong.

One of my friends here in Peru said ¨You cannot get two candidates more polarizing than Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori¨. I think he is right.

Today is also the voting for congress and the Parlamento Andino which is made up of reps elcted from Andean nations like Ecuador, Peru, and Boliva. I think some family cousins are running for office.

I did ask Celia if people get excited about voitng for President. I mean I know I do. It is kind of a nationalistic freak thing, but I am a social studies teacher, and I dig it....so hush your snickering. Excercizing ones right to vote is an awesome thing.

Celia said people here vote because the HAVE TO. They do not really get excited because they feel for the most part out of touch with the national government and that they do not do a whole lot for them. Celia said people seem to get more excited abotu regional elections, because it is people that they know, and have seen before.

As for me, I cannot vote here. Not really interested in voting here anyway. So Paco, Celia, and I made PIZZA!!! Celia's mom, 73 yr old Michilda Vasquez Prado, came to town to vote. She still lives where Celia was born in a small Pueblo about three hours away called Remiapata. So she and I made a pizza together. Michilda has never seen or eaten pizza before. In Quechua she kept saying "What are we making? What is this again?" Celia kept saying "PIIIIZZA." Michilda invited me to Remiapata to cultivate potatoes, milk cows, and make Andean cheese. I am so in!!

Also joining us were Maarten and his kids. Maarten and his family are from Holland. Maarten teaches at the seminary and goes to the same church as Paco, Celia, Franco, and I. Franco was his usually entertaining self. Throwing food, slurping down chicha morada, grabbing anything off of the table and throwing it on the floor that he could, but what else is a curious 2 yr old to do.