Weekly Report - 11 April 2006

At first it looked as if Peru's 9 April presidential contest would end in a three-way near-draw which would demand careful recounting and a tense, anxious wait. By 11 April part of that prospect had dissipated: the first round had a clear winner, Ollanta Humala of the Partido Nacionalista-Unión por el Perú (PNUP). However his two closest rivals, Lourdes Flores of Unidad Nacional (UN) and Alan Garcí­a of the Partido Aprista Peruano (PAP) were locked in a virtual photo-finish that might take up to 20 days to reveal an outcome, which in turn could determine the fate of the run-off.