Peruvian election campaign posters (Part III) -

The following is a sampling of the numerous campaign posters from the recent election. As you can see, they come in all sizes.

This is a sample of the small posters by lesser known candidates who probably didn't have the funds to compete with the main candidates. Her symbol is the River Santa, which runs the length of Ancash to the ocean. The "X" means the voter should mark her symbol. You will see these on many of the posters.

Apparently, the supporters of Waldo decided to cover up the lady candidate.  The lady who runs this little corner store was quite angry that they put all these posters on her walls without permission.  She came outside with a knife trying to scrape them off.

Here the "corn" candidate with an"X" on the corn symbol to indicate how to vote for him.

The posters get bigger. This was above a building. He was a candidate for mayor of Huaraz. The title says "Together we will recover Huaraz".

Eloy was running for mayor of Independencia and Ortiz for mayor of Huaraz. You see that these were large signs on buildings.

Another mayor combo. Holger running for Independencia and Romero for Huaraz. The title at the bottom says "For a government with management ability, honest and transparent".

Dr. Cerrón, candidate for mayor of Huaraz. He was one of the favorites of the taxi drivers we polled before the election. Local doctor and well thought of. 

This candidate's version of Superman.

This was on the top of a building.

As you can see, they like to put their photos on their campaign posters.

Thumbs up, I'm your man! "Words for others, acts for us". Mayor candidate.

Waldo was everywhere. Here he is promising work for university students after their junior year. Also, 500 soles (US$ 179) per month for every family.

More Waldo. He says in this ad that the 500 soles per month to each family "Is not a gift, it is a right".  Many people we talked to (mostly taxi drivers) think he is crazy and a liar.

Three for one. Two candidates for the two mayoral positions and one for regional president.

I believe these are former presidents but there is no indication which party put this up. It says "Enough! Peru needs order. Ancash - a region with order, a region that progresses." At the bottom is reads "No more corruption, no more demagogues. Don't elect unprepared and opportunistic persons." Good advice, whoever posted it.

"An iron lady" - for mayor of Huaraz. This was on a rooftop.

One of the lesser, unknown candidates for mayor. It reads "Clean and safe Huaraz"

"Join the honesty" and "The hoe/pickaxe/shovel returns with strength" are this candidate's slogans in her campaign for mayor.

Here is a building under construction partially covered by campaign posters.

These are really big posters!  We think it is interesting that each candidate can choose their own political symbol. A few of the parties have been around for years but many are new every year.

Campaigning really takes over everything here. This is a candidate's stage being assembled for a big rally later in the day. This is blocking the main street of the city. Traffic was re-routed on side streets.

This is another campaign rally on another day on the main thoroughfare of the city. His supporters filled more than a block of the four lane street.

We thought this was an interesting idea at the rally pictured above while they waited for the candidate to arrive. They passed out bingo cards and played bingo and gave small prizes to the winners. Here are a number of folks watching their cards on the streets. Others sat on the curb when they could find some space.

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

Ricardo Narvaez of the Cat symbol with the endorsement of Sonia Morales, a popular singer in Peru, won 18% of the vote and will be in a runoff election on Sunday, December 7, for Regional President.  Several people said they liked him because he stole less than the others when he was in office previously.

Apparently his offer of 500 soles per month to every family was believed by enough voters to give him 17% of the vote for Regional President and force a runoff election with Narvaez. 

Dr. Cerrón was the winner of the race for mayor of the city of Huaraz with 27% of the vote. There is no runoff at the city level.

And Eloy Alzamora was the winner of the mayor's office for the city of Independencia with 35% of the vote. There will be no runoff here either.

The percentage of the population of the Region of Ancash that voted in this election was 84%. Not bad!  (Remember, if they don't vote they get fined.)

Finally, this picture of two ladies of the region enjoying the sun on the main plaza of town and probably discussing the election results. They were a little irritated that we took their picture and didn't buy anything.

Peruvian election campaign posters (Part II) -

As we mentioned in the previous posting, the election campaigns here are very colorful with multiple parades and literally thousands of posters of all sizes all over the city promoting the different candidates. There were three main leadership positions to be voted on, plus the regional council. The regional president is roughly equivalent to a state governor and there were 18 candidates for the presidency of Ancash, our region. There were also 20 candidates on each ballot for the position of mayor of the two districts that make up this city, Huaraz and Independencia. Sort of like twin cities in the states but the line between them is a wide street across the middle of town.

To organize these posters and show them in one posting would be difficult. We will start with the paintings on the walls.

We caught this painter in the act. We suspect he had the permission of the owner to paint this campaign sign. This is about a block from our apt.

This was on a wall on the way to the archives.

This is all one candidate's wall painting. Above it is a huge billboard by the same candidate.

Another long wall on one of the main streets.

Each party has a symbol. This one is the corn party. These symbols aid those who cannot read to mark the correct candidate on the ballot.

The symbol here is the lady holding a child.

This one says "For the inter-oceanic highway and the Huaraz hospital". The symbol of this party is the condor.

The condor again with a nice yellow VW. MANPE stands for "Movimiento Acción Nacionalista Peruana"

This wall was around the corner from our apartment. The yellow shape inside the green symbol is the outline of the region of Ancash and the text reads "Renovation (or renewal) of Ancash".

Regional president candidate Narvaez. His party's symbol is the cat. One local commented that they needed the "cat" to chase out all the "rats" in the government. The sign above is for an automotive business that does painting and body work.

This reminded us so much of Guatemala. There, they would paint political signs on every available rock along the highways. This one originally had blue "W's" in each white spot. Someone, possibly an apposing candidate, had painted white over the letters just a few days before I was going to take a picture of the blue "W's" on the rocks. They stand for Waldo, one of the candidates for regional president.

The interesting thing is that the walls are never, well, rarely painted over.  So these walls will look the same until the next election in four years!  And we get a little feisty in the States if candidates don't take their posters down the next week.The next posting will show some of the multitude of posters that were everywhere.

Peruvian parades, politics and elections (Part I) -
Sunday, October 5, 2014 - Today is election day in Peru. Voting is compulsory for ages 18 to 70 and optional for those older. Fines of 80 soles (approx. US$ 29) are meted out to those who do not vote. Since everyone in the country has an ID card which must be shown and recorded at the voting locations, the authorities are able to track those who do not make it to the polls. While the fine is not too onerous, it is very inconvenient since apparently the government ties a notice to your ID file and any major transaction or banking activity, which always require that you identify yourself, show that you owe the government money and must clear that before you can proceed.

Turnout for presidential elections can be in the 90 - 95% range, while the average for the past 10 years in regional and municipal elections has been in the mid 80's. Elections are held on Sunday to facilitate participation by everyone. No campaigning is permitted on the Saturday prior to the election, liquor sales are prohibited, and most businesses, schools and churches are closed on election day. No meetings of any kind are permitted during the hours the polls are open, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. This ban includes church services. Since this is General Conference weekend, no broadcasts were available at the chapels on Sunday. Fortunately, we were able to watch four sessions in English on the internet at home. All the sessions will be shown at the chapels this coming Saturday and Sunday, October 11 and 12.

A little background on the Peruvian government. This country is divided into 25 regions, which are roughly comparable to our states. Each region is governed by a regional president, vice president and council; similar to our governor and state legislatures. The elections for these positions, as well as for the mayors of all the cities, are held every 4 years. The regional president and the mayors can be elected for more than one term. On the other, the president of the country is elected for a five year term and cannot hold consecutive terms but can be elected again after they have been out of office for at least one term. 

The next presidential elections will take place in 2016. The national congress is unicameral, one body, consisting of 130 representatives and is elected at the same time as the president. Peru has many political parties (over 20 candidates for mayor of Huaraz and at least 12 for regional president), and so a candidate for national or regional president must receive 30% of the vote to be elected. If this does not happen, then a runoff election is held 30 days later between the top two candidates. All candidates have a symbol associated with their name. This facilitates voting for those who do not read as they can mark an X on the symbol of candidates they are voting for.

Campaigning here in Huaraz for the regional president and mayor positions has been very intense since about May. Many of the parades and rallies are organized in the open plaza in front of our apartment and photos of that activity will be shown in this posting. Campaign posters here are numerous and very large and will be shown in the next blog posting.

Gathering in our park and preparing for a parade downtown. Candidate for regional president. 

Note the condor model on the roof. He is their symbol.  It actually looked more like a very large chicken.

Their candidate for mayor.  There were all kinds of vehicles decorated like this for the various candidates.

This sign for a mayoral candidate is bigger than the moto-truck that is carrying it. He was the eventual winner. As you can see, his symbol was the large 1 in the square.

Every parade needs some music. The band is practicing before heading downtown.

Since it usually takes several hours for the parades to get organized, food vendors show up to feed the crowd.

What parade is complete without an ice cream vendor?

Check out this bag of puffed corn, going to provide snacks for the masses.

Ladies in native dress with their green balloons for the parade.

These dancers with the red headdresses are waiting to enter the march.

Another dance group preparing for a political parade.

Loaded and ready to roll. Supporters of Mayor candidate.

Another band prepares to parade.

Some costumed marchers getting ready.

A sign on a moto-truck getting ready to march downtown.

Another political parade ready to roll downtown from our location.


Sometimes a school parade marches through our plaza while a political parade is organizing as happened in the photo below.

Our next post will show a few of the thousands of posters and painted walls that the candidates put up to promote their respective campaigns.