Author: xaurav

Run-off election likely in Peru

Peruvian election candidates Ollanta Humala, Keiko Fujimori, Alejandro Toledo and Pedro Pablo KuczynskiPeru has a record of election surprises
Related Stories

Peru is voting for a new president on Sunday after one of the most unpredictable and tightly-contested campaigns in recent history.

The front-runner is a left-wing former army officer, Ollanta Humala, but he is not expected to win the 50% required for outright victory.

Four other candidates have a realistic chance of getting through to a run-off.

They include Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori.

Also in contention are former President Alejandro Toledo and former Prime Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, as well as Luis Castaneda, a former mayor of the capital, Lima.

Outgoing President Alan Garcia cannot stand for a second term and his Apra party has not put forward a candidate.

Peru is enjoying an economic boom and the campaign has focused on how to maintain growth while tackling widespread poverty.

Opinions polls have fluctuated wildly in the run-up to the vote.

Ollanta Humala, 48, who came second to Alan Garcia in 2006, has campaigned on a promise to increase the state’s role in the economy and redistribute wealth to Peru’s poor majority.

His critics have compared him to Venezuela’s left-wing President Hugo Chavez, but he has emphasised links with Brazil’s governing Worker’s Party.

Keiko Fujimori, 35, has appealed to voters who still admire her father, Alberto Fujimori, who was president for a decade from 1990 but is now serving a 25-year jail sentence for corruption and organising death squads.

She has defended his record, saying that by taming hyper-inflation and defeating Shining Path rebels, he laid the basis for Peru’s current economic boom.

The prospect of a run off between Mr Humala and Ms Fujimori has worried some Peruvians, including the Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, who has said it would be like “choosing between Aids and cancer”.

Mr Vargas Llosa is an outspoken critic of left-wing politics and himself stood for president in 1990 only to be defeated by Alberto Fujimori.

Former President Alejandro Toledo, 64, who led the country from 2001-2006, also claims credit for the economic boom.

In the final days of the campaign he suggested an electoral pact with other candidates to avert a Fujimori-Humala run-off.

On the eve of the election the governing Apra party gave its support to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, 72, a former prime minister and Wall Street banker.

Mr Kuczynski has strong backing in the business community and among wealthy voters in Lima.

If no candidate wins an outright majority, a second-round run-off will be held on 5 June.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Reduced cancer waits ‘top priority for Scots’

Chemotherapy treatment, a police officer, a microbiology lesson and workers on a construction siteAbout 1,000 people in Scotland were asked what policies should be prioritised

Cutting cancer treatment waiting times and maintaining the number of police on the streets are the top two priorities for Scotland in the Holyrood elections, according to a poll for BBC Scotland.

The exclusive ICM survey also suggested strong backing for free university education – which was ranked third.

The BBC poll asked people to rate 25 issues taken from party manifestos.

The lowest ranking went to the Tory policy of letting 14-year-olds leave school to train for a trade.

Second lowest priority was given to the plan to build a new bridge across the River Forth.

The idea of combining Scotland’s eight police forces into a single national force was also in the bottom three, despite the plan being suggested to save money for frontline policing.

TOP FIVE PRIORITIESCut waiting times to see a cancer specialistKeep up the number of police on the streetsRetain free university education for all Scottish studentsSpend more money on apprenticeshipsfor unemployed young peopleReduce the council tax for households where all the adults are pensionersBBC poll results in full

For the poll, ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,004 adults by telephone between 5 and 8 April.

Interviews were conducted across Scotland and the results were weighted to the profile of all Scottish adults.

In terms of parties, the top-ranked policy was in the Labour manifesto; to cut the waiting time for suspected cancer cases to see a specialist from four weeks to two.

Other parties also had policies which were designed to cut health waiting lists or shorten waiting times.

The issue of keeping up the number of police on the streets follows an initiative by the SNP government, backed by the Conservatives, to increase the strength of Scotland’s forces by 1,000 officers.

The third ranked policy, that of retaining free university education, was supported by the Liberal Democrats as well as the SNP and Labour. Only the Tories proposed a graduate charge.

More than one party will claim ownership of the policy which is ranked fourth – that of spending more money on apprenticeships for unemployed young people.

Below that, the next focus is upon the council tax – a hugely contentious issue in these elections.

LOWEST FIVE PRIORITIESAllow 14-year-olds to leave school to train for a tradeBuild a new road bridge across the River ForthCombine the eight separate police forces in Scotland into a single national forceHold a referendum on whether Scotland should become an independent countryRaise the money local councils need through a local income tax rather than the council tax

Placed fifth in the poll was a Conservative policy of cutting the council tax for all households where all the adults are pensioners.

In sixth place comes a policy now effectively backed by all the major parties: a council tax freeze for the next two years.

Below that, in seventh place, lies the Lib Dem policy of scrapping the council tax for the poorest pensioners.

Turning to the bottom of the poll, it seems voters do not accord high priority to the idea of replacing the council tax with a local income tax. That comes in at number 21.

That has been contentious in these elections although the parties advocating it, the SNP and the Lib Dems, now say that it would have to await the further devolution of income tax powers which means effectively deferring it for a further Holyrood election.

Ranked at number 22 is the SNP idea of holding a referendum on whether Scotland should become an independent country.

That relatively low ranking may be partly explained by the present focus on immediate economic concerns.

In practice, the SNP have tended to major on other issues while stressing their determination to bring forward a referendum bill if they are re-elected.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Japan PM Kan makes tsunami pledge

Naoto Kan walks through ruins during a visit to a fishing port in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture April 10, 2011Naoto Kan tried to reassure locals that the fishing industry will resume

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has told survivors of last month’s devastating tsunami that his government will never abandon them.

Mr Kan, on a tour of areas wrecked by the disaster, promised to do everything possible to help the communities.

Japan is set to mark a month since the disaster with local meetings, but there are no national events planned.

The tsunami, triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, killed thousands and left many more homeless.

Some villages on the north-east coast of Honshu island were largely destroyed.

The disaster also severely damaged a nuclear plant, which is still causing huge problems for the authorities.

Mr Kan told survivors in the city of Ishinomaki: “The government will give all its strength to work with you. We will never abandon you.”

He said the government would “work as fast as possible” to house 150,000 people still living in emergency shelters – some 17,000 of them in Ishinomaki.

The prime minister also tried to reassure survivors that the fishing industry – which many in the area rely on for their livelihoods – would resume as soon as possible.

The tsunami wrecked boats and piers, closing down large-scale fishing operations.

The damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has also hit the fishing industry, as the public and international buyers ditch Japanese food products over fears of contamination.

The authorities have been releasing radioactive water into the sea from the plant in recent days – the latest in a series of moves to manage the facility’s demise.

Workers at the plant are set to stop releasing the water within hours, and will begin transferring highly radioactive water to a sealed area within the plant.

The release of the water angered fishing communities and drew criticism from Russia, China and South Korea.

Mr Kan apologised for not releasing more information on the operation.

Meanwhile, several thousand people in Tokyo staged a demonstration against nuclear power on Sunday.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.