presidential elections in peru

Today is phase one of the presidential elections in Peru.

This is how presidential elections are different in Peru than in the U.S....

1) They are obligatory.  If you don't vote you get a fine.  (around 70 soles, I think)  So Witnesses show up and mark their ballot, but not for one candidate.

2) You have to travel to where you are registered, so this weekend lots and lots of people are traveling to wherever they're originally from.

3) The people who manage the polls and count the votes are randomly selected from the population.  If you skip out on that the fine is around 250 soles.  I wonder if the vote is skewed by people who can't really count or are unscrupulous enough to lie about the results.

4) The president can only win with a 50% majority. That means after the first vote, today, of the 5 main candidates the top 2 candidates will run again, against each other in a few months.

I don't keep up with things much, but apparently the campaigning has been a messy mudslinging extravaganza.  Here's the criticism I've heard about the main candidates...

Toledo- alcoholic, corrupt the first time he was president

Keiko Fujimori- she just wants to become president so she can pardon her father, who's serving 25 years in prison for human rights abuses when he was president

PPK- son of European immigrants, and has dual citizenship in Peru and the U.S. 'the Gringo', rich guy who's out of touch with Peru

Ollanta Humala- socialist who talks about changing the constitution if necessary, really scary to a lot of people because of his military background and mentored by Hugo Chavez.  led a military revolt against Keiko's dad. his brother is still in prison for killing people in that uprising.

Castaneda- I haven't really heard anything about him, so it's no wonder he's in last place by the current count.

This is Mandi Loomis, Peru correspondent.