JADED BY POLITICAL TURMOIL, PERUVIANS PREPARE TO VOTE

LIMA, Peru -- Politics-weary Peruvians will vote for a new president and
Congress on Sunday after Alberto Fujimori's corrupt government collapsed
last November. But the nasty final weeks of campaigning suggest that
Peru may find it hard to escape its tumultuous political past.

This Andean nation has been a key economic and anti-drug partner for the
United States in South America. Its government collapsed last year as
Washington launched a $1.3 billion military aid program for
counternarcotics efforts next door in Colombia, and its continued
political instability would be worrisome for U.S. policy and the entire
Andean region.

Election front-runner Alejandro Toledo has fended off charges of cocaine
use and fathering a child out of wedlock. The tabloid press has said
challenger Lourdes Flores, an unmarried conservative lawmaker, is a
lesbian. Disgraced former President Alan Garc(acu)a, who left office in
1990 with inflation running higher than 2,000 percent, suddenly seemed
presidential timber again and surged in popularity in the final weeks of
the campaign. By law, campaigning stopped Thursday.

No candidate is likely to win an outright majority, in which case a
runoff between the top two vote winners would follow in May. Toledo,
widely viewed as cheated out of the presidency last year by Fujimori, is
comfortably ahead in the polls. The race for second place is too close
to call.

Voting is mandatory in Peru, but two weeks before the election, 20
percent to 30 percent of voters were still undecided.

``For the majority of voters, I think, there is a crisis of credibility
in the candidates,'' said Carlos Tapia, an independent political analyst
in Lima. ``Most voters don't believe the candidates.''

Citing a ``generalized cynicism,'' Tapia said the fall of Fujimori's
government and a decade of unmet political promises had soured
Peruvians.

Fujimori abandoned the presidency in November; his powerful spymaster
and close ally, Vladimiro Montesinos, was already a fugitive. Then Peru
was riveted by the release of videos secretly taped by Montesinos that
purported to document corruption in Congress, the courts, election
supervisors, military brass and business elites. An interim government
has jailed Fujimori's top three military leaders.

All three leading candidates are suspect. Toledo is accused of trying to
kill the story of his alleged cocaine use by offering a campaign post to
an investigative reporter. Toledo admits he tested positive for cocaine
use, but says he was drugged against his will by agents of Fujimori.

Flores campaigns with the brother of a mayor who was videotaped
receiving at least $30,000 from Montesinos. Garc(acu)a allegedly
received more than $1 million in kickbacks during his rule from 1985 to
1990. His former interior minister was videotaped receiving $100,000
from Montesinos.

Perhaps the only reason for cheer this weekend is that the election
supervisory organization, known by the Spanish acronym ONPE, has had a
thorough scrubbing.

Under Fujimori, the ONPE was accused last year of stacking the election
against Toledo. Fernando Tuesta, a respected political analyst and
professor, heads the new ONPE. He has replaced more than three-quarters
of its 12,000 members and put in place a professional unbiased staff
supported by nearly 40 international elections consultants from the
United States, Europe and Latin America.

``There will not be irregularities from inside the ONPE. We are watching
so that the irregularities do not come from the outside in,'' vows
Tuesta.

For the first time in Peruvian elections, voter education material was
printed in five indigenous languages, accommodations are being made for
people with disabilities and an office was established to investigate
complaints from voters. All 57 voter-tabulation centers have monitoring
areas for campaigns to watch the votes entered into a computer. The
closed-door operations of the ONPE last year were criticized as one of
the avenues for fraud.

The OAS and the election-monitoring group Transparencia praise Tuesta's
efforts.

``Last year, the referee was dirty. This year, he is clean,'' said
Rafael Rongcagliolo, secretary-general of Transparencia in Lima.