Peru: Candidate Barred From Race

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/10/world/americas/peru-candidate-barred-from-race.html

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Peru’s electoral council on Wednesday blocked the candidacy of the main challenger to the front-runner, Keiko Fujimori, in the April 10 presidential elections. The council voided the candidacy of Julio Guzmán, an economist, by a vote of 3 to 2. It cited technical reasons having to do with the mechanism by which his party had chosen him as its candidate. Critics of the ruling described it as petty. Mr. Guzmán’s spokesman, Daniel Mora, called the council’s decision “a stain on the electoral process.” Peru’s institutions are still weak and corruption-riddled two decades after the autocratic rule of Ms. Fujimori’s father, Alberto, who is imprisoned for corruption and for authorizing death squads. Mr. Guzmán had surged in opinion polls that showed him preferred by about 17 percent of voters compared with 35 percent for Ms. Fujimori.