MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Simple majority for Humala in next Peruvian Congress

The leading Peruvian presidential candidate Ollanta Humala who garnered 30% of the vote in the first round will also have the largest number of seats in the next Congress, 43 out of 120, according to the latest figures from the Electoral Office.

Although the ultra nationalist retired Army Colonel does not yet have a competitor for the run off in May because of the tight race between runners up Alan Garcia and Lourdes Flores, the legislative result came as a surprise since the newly formed Union For Peru party did not have a national infrastructure.

Social democrat Alan Garcia's APRA party, a long established political organization particularly strong in rural and poor urban areas managed to obtain 35 seats and Conservative Lourdes Flores National Unity Alliance 19 seats.

Alliance for the Future which responds to former president Alberto Fujimori, currently retained in Chile pending an extradition process began by the Peruvian government, will have 15 members in Congress and 5 members a small party representing another former president Valentin Paniauga.

An evangelist group managed three seats but the Peru is Possible party from outgoing president Alejandro Toledo will have no representation at all in the next Congress.

During the presidential campaign Mr. Humala anticipated that if elected he would convene a Constitutional Assembly to review the 1993 constitution which he described as "illegal" and "privileging foreign companies and investment", for which he needed strong congressional support. However with a simple majority and all other parties contrary to constitutional reform it's hard to see how Mr. Humala objective, if confirmed in the run off, can be achieved.

Among the new figures of the next Peruvian Congress are Fujimori eldest daughter Keiko, who was the most voted member of the new legislative with 370.000 votes; Fujimori brother Santiago; an international volleyball woman player; the country's most popular radio broadcaster; two coca planters leaders and a former two times mayor of Lima, the capital of Peru.

With over 90% of April 9 election returns counted, Mr. Garcia and Ms Flores are "technically" tied with the difference in votes below half a percentage point.