Radio interviews closest Peru has come to presidential debate

LIMA, Peru - In what may be the closest Peru comes to holding a presidential debate, President Alberto Fujimori traded barbs with upstart challenger Alejandro Toledo in back-to-back radio interviews on Saturday.

Fujimori accused Toledo of confusing voters and attempting to destabilize Peru by calling for a general boycott of the May 28 runoff without officially withdrawing from the race.

He reiterated that the vote would not be postponed, despite mounting international pressure following an April 9 first-round ballot marred by accusations of vote tampering and dirty tricks by government forces.

"A clean election is my responsibility," Fujimori said during a 45-minute interview on Radio Programas del Peru.

He said the Organization of American States, the U.S. State Department, and Toledo were not qualified to dictate a delay in the election.

A half-hour before Fujimori's interview, Toledo was on the same station saying he would not participate in the scheduled vote. But he said his party would continue campaigning "against fraud and seeking a new, reasonable date to allow the introduction of changes for a clean election."

Negotiations for a presidential debate were set to resume last week, but fell by the wayside Thursday when the National Election Board rejected Toledo's demand to push the runoff date back to June 18.

Hours earlier, the OAS election delegation had also requested a postponement, warning that it could not endorse the May 28 ballot because there was insufficient time to test new vote-counting software.

A State Department spokesman said Friday that Washington supported the OAS request for a delay, and regretted Toledo's decision to withdraw, as well as the election board's "hasty decision."

Fujimori said tabulating the upcoming vote would require little more than a hand calculator because it only involved two presidential candidates. The April 9 general election included nine presidential hopefuls, as well as their congressional slates, for a total of 1,627 candidates.

The second round was set after Fujimori narrowly missed a majority of votes necessary to claim an unprecedented third five-year term. The final results showed that about 1 million more ballots were cast than there were voters.

Toledo said he planned to mobilize peaceful demonstrations across the nation to pressure Fujimori into changing the date.

Polls show Toledo and Fujimori tied in voter preference. Tens of thousands of people have rallied for both candidates, producing several violent confrontations in recent days.

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