Here is an article from a few weeks ago that I wrote about the elections but never had the time to post it.
It's been less than one week now and many Peruvians are still recovering from the shock of Ollanta Humala's victory over Keiko Fujimori for the coveted seat of power. A total upset victory which had the two candidates practically neck and neck in the elections polls, that is until millions were stunned by the election day flash results, which painted a much different picture. Now the reality has sunk in that Humala will be Peru's next president and like it or not there is nothing any of us can do about it. When talking with most people I noticed that for many Limeñans what was initially a total aversion to the idea of Humala as president has quickly evolved to a lesser disdain that is transmitted through words and phrases of submission and uncertainty. People genuinely want to believe that their predictions about our newly elect president will be wrong and that a contrary outcome could be possible, but for most those thoughts are about as possible as grandma winning the lottery. Only time will tell what lies in store for many Peruvians as they sit playing a metaphorical game of russian roulette (except with five bullets load instead of one).
Incoherent and grammatically incorrect ramblings aside, I spent last week documenting several key political election events and thanks to poor planning had to take a most of my photos ala pedestrian. As you read in my last post I spent Thursday night covering the end of campaign rallies that were being held downtown which was a complete blast, photography issues aside. Sunday however was rather calm in the early morning hours, though there was a larger presence of traffic. I decided to hit up my voting center first just to get it out of the way. My original DNI was created while I was living in the US the address used on my ID card was the one in Portland, now because I moved to Lima I had to change my address to the one in Chorrillos which meant my voting number/code changed as well, no biggie right? WRONG! My father whom I reside with only votes a few blocks away from our home at some school (FYI all voting centers are at some school or university, in Lima there are a LOT), so naturally I should to right, same adress and all, but nooooooo... I have to vote clear on the other side of the F#$&ing district, nearly five to six kilometers away, in fact it's so remote for me that I wasn't sure I was even in Chorrillos anymore. I guess the on the plus side the voting lines at IEP Tupac Amaru II are short and sweet, it took me only ten minutes to vote. This school was also perhaps one of the few that actually let me take photos with hasseling me for such ridiculous things as credentials and permission.
Did I mention that traffic was hellacious (please forgive the poor spelling, apparantly my British friend was unsure as to it's spelling), after about an hour I was able to get a colectivo to take me to Breña, where I met up with Zdenka. There we hit up a few schools in the district and were forced to leave by the naval mp's and ONPE officials. The day after that pretty much drudged on until the closing hour of the elections. While having a late lunch at one of Lima's finest franchised establishments (KFC), everyone inside were glued to the incoming wave of flash reports that flooded every local channel and as everyone awaited for the response on the sound of the TV and the deep friers could be heard. Then the faces of the presidential candidates were posted on the screen and in came the numbers from each department in Peru, the stress and anticipation in everyone's faces was almost similar to kind of response you get when watching for your Lotto numbers on TV. Defeat and victory were both experienced shortly after and then just as quickly as the whole thing started it was over, and while some were unhappy with the end result little was left for them to do in response except continue about with their lives like they had been doing.
