Special Report: Presidential election begins in Peru

Peru's presidential candidate Alan Garcia answers reporters' questions after voting at a polling station in Lima on Presidential election day, June 4, 2006. (Xinhua photo)

    LIMA, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Alan Garcia, the former Peruvian president seeking the presidency with the Peru Aprist Party, is leading the country's exit polls on Sunday, with 55 percent to 52.8 percent of the vote, compared with 47.2 percent to 45 percent for his rival Ollanta Humala.

    Humala leads the Nationalist Peru Union.

    The results, which are indicative polls, carried out by unofficial researchers, will be confirmed or denied by the official National Electoral Process Office in a few hours.

    Sunday's vote is a run-off between two left-wingers, who won the most votes from a 20-strong field of first round candidates.

    The exit polls are in line with voting intentions published on May 26, with one major difference: last month, 23 percent of those polled said they had not decided which way to vote.

    Garcia, 57, won just over 24 percent in the April 9 first round vote while Humala, 43, won just short of 31 percent.

    Polls closed at 4.00 p.m. local time (2100 GMT) on Sunday without major incident. Reports from the Organization of American States, said that the elections were carried out normally, with only minor incidents, such as late opening at some polling stations.

    Some 16.5 million Peruvians are eligible to vote in these elections.

    Garcia was educated in the Law Department of Catholic University in Lima and the National University of San Marcos. He became a lawyer in 1972 and then continued to study in Spain, France, Britain and the Netherlands. He gained a doctor's degree in law and sociology.

    He has pledged to scrap any free-trade deal with the United States and raise taxes on the mining industry, the main engine of Peru's economy. Enditem