Living in Peru : your everyday companion

(LIP-wb) -- Peruvian president Alan Garcia Perez confessed today he cried last Sunday evening after watching the first results of the regional and municipal elections and to realize that his APRA had lost the race for mayor of Trujillo, a traditional bastion and birthplace of the party in northern Peru.

“Yes, I admit it. I have cried Sunday night because I never thought that this was possible. I never thought we would lose in our cradle and burial place of Victor Raul Haya de la Torre (founder of APRA). It's a stab to the heart”, he expressed.

Immediately after he declared that “at some time I am going to recover Trujillo, even if I personally have to declare my candidacy to the city's mayor's office”.

This past Sunday, all Peruvians went to the ballot boxes to choose to their new local and regional authorities. In both cases, independent movements were the clear winners over the established national parties, including the APRA how may have taken the heaviest losses.

In Trujillo, the Aprista candidate for the city's mayor wa rejected by the popular vote. The unofficial results gave the edge to César Acuña of the movement "Alliance For Progress" with an impressive 55,9 percent of the votes. The APRA's defeat in Trujillo has been a historic one after occupying the mayor's armchair for four decades.

However, later Garcia said that despite results neither the APRA  nor other parties have been defeated. He maintained that “by the municipal nature of the elections”, citizens are inclined to choose independent candidates in their localities.

He also denied that his ex-opponent in the presidential elections, Ollanta Humala, “has been eliminated” after his Nationalistic Party received an equally low support. He maintained that the opposition leader will continue having a national presence in politics because “until this moment he does not have a challenging contender within his nationalistic project”.