MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Humala block could split and join with Garcia

The founder and chairman of the party that lent its banner to nationalist Ollanta Humala for his failed presidential bid said Tuesday that the unsuccessful hopeful no longer leads the Union for Peru, or UPPO.

"Ollanta is no longer leader of our party, as people continue to say out there. Ollanta is a citizen just like all of us. UPP has its own, totally autonomous officials" Aldo Estrada is quoted by Andina news agency.

Humala was defeated in Sunday's presidential runoff by Social democrat Alan Garcia.

Estrada, who founded the UPP in 1995 along with veteran Peruvian diplomat and former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, said that the electoral "alliance will be reviewed".

"We will talk with Humala to let him know categorically under which scenarios the political integration can continue, but if Humala says no, the alliance comes to an end".

Estrada said UPP will hold an assembly June 17 to vote on whether to maintain the coalition with Humala's nationalist followers. If the alliance dissolves, the UPP will form an independent congressional bloc of 19 members, Estrada said.

Humala, a left-leaning retired army officer, ran under the UPP banner in the election because his own Nationalist Party did not meet the registration deadline.

The arrangement also benefited UPP, rescuing the party from political oblivion and enabling it to gain 45 of the 120 seats in Congress in the first round of balloting on April 9, enough to enjoy a plurality in the legislature.

But 26 of those seats were won by Humala supporters who would presumably remain loyal to him if the nationalist alliance with the UPP breaks down, hence Estrada's talk of a 19-member contingent.

The other big blocs in Congress will be those of Garcia's APRA, with 36 seats; the conservative National Unity, with 17; and the Alliance for the Future, whose 13 members are partisans of disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori. Three smaller parties hold a total of nine seats.

Estrada said Tuesday that the UPP is not interested in constituting a "stubborn and unhealthy" opposition to the future Garcia administration, words that are sure to be welcomed by the elected president.