Immediate Release
Friday, May 26, 2000
FUJIMORI SETS STAGE FOR POLITICAL CRISIS IN PERU
Two days after a test of the computer vote counting system failed to convince international observers that authorities
were capable of staging a fair election, the Peruvian National Election Board (JNE) voted 3-2 yesterday to proceed with
this Sunday's balloting. The decision represents a direct challenge from President Alberto Fujimori to the Organization
of American States, which is at this moment pulling most of its officials out of the country. The OAS and the rest of
the international community must now face the fact that for months they have ignored the real issue in their naïve
acceptance of the president's empty promises: namely, that Fujimori will accept nothing less than a rigged game.
OAS Fails to Save Election
The OAS election team in the country, led by former Guatemalan Foreign Minister Eduardo Stein, has not turned in a
markedly distinguished performance while going through the rudiments concerning the lack of equitable democratic ground
rules that have existed in Peru since Fujimori first took office in 1990. Stein's working assumption appears to have
been that Fujimori is a man of goodwill who, once he is made aware of some electoral shortcomings, will move to redress
them. In fact, Fujimori is an appalling new-style dictator, who never deigns to conceal his contempt for basic
democratic purposes and institutions. Furthermore, it comes as no surprise that Fujimori has decided, as he did in 1992
when he dissolved congress and rewrote the constitution, to tough out international recrimination for a relatively brief
period in exchange for five more years of power. Alejandro
In recent days, Fujimori seemed to soften slightly under pressure from Stein's modest request of postponing the
election for two weeks. But Toledo, who was almost certainly robbed of an election victory in the April 9 first-round
elections, insisted that the delay be at least three weeks, which he felt necessary to scour computer software for bugs
and dole out much-needed training to election officials, ensuring the minimum conditions for a fair balloting.
Toledo's refusal to budge on this issue stymied Stein's attempts at negotiating with Fujimori and has provoked worried
remarks from the Clinton administration, which fully recognizes that the OAS has its back against the wall. While
conceding the week may have saved the two-way race, for Toledo-who was meticulously denied adequate media coverage prior
to the first round of voting-it meant the difference between ensuring a clean race or losing again under fixed
conditions. Stuck between the intransigence of both Fujimori and Toledo, Stein was left with only one option: pull out
of Peru.
Electoral Process a Charade from Beginning to End
Throughout his presidency, Fujimori has steadily tightened his autocratic stranglehold on Peru's institutions, while
proving that the threats of the international community are a paper tiger. The first round elections indelibly revealed
the inefficacy of the OAS and its observing mission, which gave the green light to Fujimori, despite the severely tilted
conditions that were the president's warped idea of a level playing field. Observers from the Carter Center and the
National Democratic Institute had made known the various suspect tactics Fujimori employed in order to limit Toledo to a
minuscule amount of media coverage. Moreover, in spite of the blatantly despotic methods used by Fujimori to seize
control over Peru's electoral institutions throughout the months leading up to the April 9 ballot, Stein's exceedingly
modest standards were placated with ease. This took the
Fujimori's cynical insistence on following the constitutional guidelines, which mandate that he hold the elections as
scheduled, is a matter of low humor at best. While it may be convenient for him to abide by the law now, it wasn't so a
number of months ago when he arranged for three constitutional judges to be summarily fired for daring to rule
(consistent with legal precedent) against his ability to run for a third term. Soon after, a new, hand-picked supreme
court allowed him to run for re-election. Engineering the mass falsification of signatures to get his name on the ballot
was simply a matter of doing business as usual for this experienced draconian.
In light of the fact that Fujimori would have pulled all the strings necessary-fair or foul-to guarantee his
re-election, Toledo responded appropriately to the intolerable position in which the president placed him. Although
Peruvian citizens are required by law to vote, Toledo has asked his supporters to boycott the election by abstaining, or
by writing "No to fraud!" on their ballots. Since there was no chance for Toledo to win on Fujimori's uneven playing
field, he was forced to rely on the international community to overcome its predisposition for complacency and to
vigorously condemn it as an unmitigated sham not worthy of recognition. While it now appears that the OAS has no other
choice but to finally fulfill Toledo's hopes, the move may have come too late. After months of implicitly supporting the
incumbent's shabby intentions, the OAS has confirmed the indisputa
Reed Lindsay and Dan Nemser, Research Associates
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