EARLY RESULTS IN PERU INDICATE TIGHT 3-WAY RACE

Runoff for Top 2 Vote-Getters Likely in May

LIMA, Peru -- Peruvians headed to the polls Sunday in presidential
elections that pitted a populist military man against a hard-talking
congresswoman and a former president who left the country in shambles
20 years ago.

Political newcomer Ollanta Humala, 43, a retired lieutenant colonel
with support among the country's Indian and mixed-race poor, held a
narrow lead, according to early election results.

No candidate was likely to win a majority in Sunday balloting, meaning
Peru would need to conduct a runoff between the top two vote-getters
next month. A poll Saturday by local polling firm Apoyo showed 27% of
Peruvians backing Humala. Lourdes Flores and Alan Garcia were tied for
second place with 23%.

Official results are due today.

Humala has been endorsed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez. He uses
some of the same rhetoric as Bolivia's leftist leader, Evo Morales.

Humala has pledged to renegotiate contracts of foreign mining and oil
companies; rewrite the constitution to take powers from the political
elite; and legalize farming of coca, the plant used to make cocaine.
Peru is one of the world's largest coca producers, according to the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Humala has promised to fight corruption and bring education, health
care and potable water to rural areas. His detractors say he would be
an authoritarian and have accused him of atrocities. Humala has faced
allegations of human rights abuses and killings, which he denies, as
an army commander when Peru fought Shining Path guerrillas in the
1980s and early 1990s.

As he voted Sunday in his upscale neighborhood, hundreds of protesters
surrounded the polling station throwing trash and rocks at Humala and
his wife, shouting, "Murderer, murderer!" and "Ollanta is Chvez!" The
Humalas were escorted away by riot police carrying shields.

"His associates are ominous," says Michael Shifter, vice president of
the InterAmerican Dialogue, a think tank in Washington, D.C. "A Humala
presidency could increase ethnic divisions and resentments, and
restore the political profile and position of the armed forces,
returning the country to previous periods of military
ascendancy."

Running against Humala, Flores, 46, is a center-right lawyer and
congresswoman with little charisma. She supports increased foreign
investment and a free-trade deal with the United States. She would be
Peru's first female leader.

Flores is portrayed by detractors as a defender of Lima's political
and economic elite, out of touch with the frustrations of the masses.
"Unless Flores embarks on ... social reform aimed at addressing the
country's exclusion and inequality, political unrest could mount
during her presidency," Shifter says.

The third major candidate is former president Alan Garcia, 56, a
skilled orator and center-left politician. A former boy wonder who won
the presidency in 1985 at age 36, he stepped down five years later,
leaving the country enmeshed in guerrilla violence, food shortages and
an annual inflation exceeding 7,000%.

Lourdes is "an American candidate," and Humala could turn into a
dictator, says unemployed bricklayer Felix Guillermo Salgado Cuba, 48.
"Garcia has experience. ... He knows what he is doing," he says.

Humala's military background is what appeals to many here. "What we
need in this country is order," says Luis Gomez, 32, a duck and pig
farmer. "Whatever he does, he will do it with strength."

Voting is obligatory in Peru, and anyone between the ages of 18-70 who
does not do so is fined the equivalent of $40. The average Peruvian
monthly salary, according to government statistics, is $65.