Saturday, June 4, 2011

Tomorrow in Peru

is the second round of presidential elections - in my homeland, it is rare that a candidate gets the majority (50% + 1 of the total votes) so "runoffs" or second rounds are common.

I will be honest. I couldn't vote for either candidate, if I could still vote there. One is the daughter of one of the many corrupt presidents in our history, and while I look forward (I'm pretty sure she will win) to a female President of Peru, I wish it weren't this particular woman.

The other is a man with strong ties to the Chavez government in Venezuela. He actually got the plurality (most votes of any candidate) in the first round but has been losing steam since.

I feel so bad for this awful choice my homeland must make on Sunday. As our Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mario Vargas Llosa said, "this choice is like choosing between cancer and AIDS."

I hope that whoever gets elected has it in them to go past their own agendas and maybe, just maybe, put the well-being of the country and its citizens first. It's about damn time.

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