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SV Peruvian politician Raul Haya de la Torre surrounded by cheering crowd throwing confetti (2 shots)
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MV Crowd
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MCU Torre surrounded by supporters as he mounts rostrum (2 shots)
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CU Torre acknowledges applause (3 shots)
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In the elections the left showed unexpected strength and six left-wing parties won 30 per cent of the vote. During the election period the government deported 14 left-wing candidates to Argentina and a dozen were held without charges by the security police, who have accused them of subversion. Retired General Leonidas Rodriguez Figuer???a, who heads the leading left-wing party, was arrested after he voted on election day. Members of the new cabinet are expected to come mainly from Torre's party and from the Popular Christian party, when all the election results are officially confirmed.




Initials EP/2400



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: With military-ruled Peru in the midst of its worst-ever economic crisis, the country's first elections in 15 years have returned Victor Raul Haya de la Torre, leader of the moderate right-wing American Popular of Revolutionary Alliance, to his former position strength. In 1963 APRA and another party called Accion Popular held 70 per cent of the vote. Now, from an electorate of about five million, APRA has captured 36 per cent of the ballot.

SYNOPSIS: Members of Torre's party were worried that sympathizers might not vote for him because of his age -- he is 83. But crowds in Lima turned out to celebrate the emergence of APRA as the strongest single party. The right have now gained a clear majority of the 100 seats in Peru's Constituent Assembly.

The assembly is due to meet on 28 July to start the year-long job of writing a new constitution aimed at democratic rule. It will replace a charter dating back to 1933. Torre's party had threatened to withdraw from the elections because the government had refused to change the rules. Torre will be joined in the assembly by the Popular Christian Party, another right-wing group who won 27 per cent of the vote. The task ahead is to prepare Peru for a return to civilian rule, followed by general and presidential elections in 1980.