Thursday, April 7, 2016

LatAm in Focus: Steven Levitsky on Peru's Election

By Holly K. Sonneland

Which presidential race has been more incredulous in 2016—Peru’s or the United States’? It’s a tough call, says the Harvard professor.

</p> <div class="wrapper" style="width: 100%;"> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" style="width: 30%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p style="text-align: center;"><em><b style="font-size: 20px;"><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/foto-Levitsky_200h.jpeg" style="width: 100%; height: 100%;" /></b></em><br /> <span style="font-size:10px;">Image courtesy of Steven Levitsky</span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p>On April 10, Peruvians head to <a href="http://www.as-coa.org/articles/explainer-whos-running-2016-peruvian-presidential-election">the polls</a> to vote for Ollanta Humala’s successor. Leading in the polls is Keiko Fujimori, a former first lady during her father Alberto’s presidency in the 1990s and the runner-up to Humala in the 2011 presidential election.</p> <div class="wrapper" style="width: 100%;"> <p>Harvard University’s <a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/levitsky/home" target="_blank">Steven Levitsky</a>, an expert on Peruvian politics, spoke with AS/COA Online’s Holly Sonneland about Sunday’s vote, the candidates, and a race overshadowed by candidate disqualifications.</p> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" style="width: 40%;"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <p style="text-align: center;"> </p> <p style="text-align: center;"><em><b style="font-size: 20px;">"</b></em><em><b style="font-size: 20px;">People were organizing marches demanding the exclusion of other candidates</b></em><em><b style="font-size: 20px;">."</b></em></p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <p>“When you unfairly remove candidates from the race and unfairly restrict competition, the result is an election that is less democratic,” says Levitsky. </p> <p>All the discussion and energy devoted to the disqualifications has detracted from the democracy of the race, says Levitsky. “If you picked up a newspaper in late March and read the political section, eight out of 10 articles would be about the possible, pending exclusion of a candidate,” he says. “People were running around basically either defending themselves or making the case that other candidates should be excluded from the race—which is just a terribly undemocratic place to be because elections are about maximizing competition.”</p> <p>If no candidate captures a 50 percent majority, a runoff election will take place on June 5. The winner will be sworn into office in July.</p> <p> </p>

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LatAm in Focus: Steven Levitsky on Peru's Election

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