Garcia declares comeback win in Peru
Bitter campaign marred by violence, name-calling
Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia proclaims his victory after Sunday's election. RELATED YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS Peru or or Create Your Own
LIMA, Peru (CNN) -- Former Peruvian president Alan Garcia declared victory in a runoff election Monday and appeared poised to stage a political comeback 16 years after his previous administration ended in economic ruin and social unrest.
With nearly 91 percent of the presidential ballots counted, Garcia was leading with 54.7 percent of the vote, the National Electoral Process Office said.
Ollanta Humala, a leftist former coup leader, had 45.3 percent.
Despite Garcia's claim of victory, many of the outstanding ballots were from rural areas where Humala is thought to have strong support.
Some Peruvians said they believed voting for Garcia was choosing the lesser of two evils in a race with Humala, who campaigned for closer ties with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.
Garcia, a socialist, led Peru from 1985 to 1990, when inflation that exceeded 7,500 percent per year ravaged the country's economy and the Maoist "Shining Path" guerrilla movement gained in influence.
Garcia had been living in self-imposed exile in France since shortly after leaving office.
Despite warnings that exit polls are sometimes inaccurate, many Garcia supporters celebrated in the streets of the capital city, Lima.
Interior Minister Romulo Pizarro reported calm throughout the country and said the election had gone well, despite earlier incidents.
Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo has asked both candidates to accept and respect the results when they are final.
Under Toledo, another leftist, Peru's economy showed healthy growth and exports boomed. But the benefits never trickled down to the poor: Government statistics show that about two-thirds of the 28 million Peruvians still live in poverty.
The bitterly fought election has included street clashes and virulent exchanges of slurs, including from Chavez, who exacerbated the ill will by vigorously endorsing Humala and calling Garcia a crook, The Associated Press reported.
At one point, Garcia was hit in the face by an egg, leaving a nasty bruise. The attack, in the highland city of Cuzco, a stronghold for Humala, was followed hours later by a shootout involving supporters of the two rivals.
In the final days of campaigning, election observers from the Organization of American States urged the two campaigns to tone down the rhetoric and avoid violence.
Humala, 43, a retired military man like Chavez, spooked some upper- and middle-class Peruvians by attacking the established parties as corrupt and unresponsive to the needs of the poor. He had vowed to write a new constitution stripping them of power.
Garcia, 57, turned the race into a referendum on the Chavez factor, depicting Humala as an aspiring despot who would fall into lockstep with the Venezuelan's populist economics and Cuba-friendly anti-Americanism.
He has labeled Chavez, who is rolling in petrodollars from record-high oil prices, as "a midget dictator with a big wallet." Chavez in turn has called Garcia "a genuine thief, a demagogue, a liar."
In Washington on Monday, a U.S. State Department spokesman said, "We congratulate the Peruvian people on what would seem to be an open election free of violence.
"I haven't heard any serious reports of electoral irregularities, so this is an important moment for the Peruvian people, but I think I'm going to withhold any judgment on it until we have final results," Sean McCormack said.
Journalist Claudia Cisneros contributed to this report.
Alan Garcia left and Ollanta Humala right 
Alan Garcia, the former president of Peru in 1985-1990, has once again won the presidential election of Peru in a runoff against candidate Ollanta Humala. Garcia received the majority of the votes in Lima and most of Peru's urban areas, while Humala received most of the votes from the rural areas. 

Alan Garcia's first presidential term ended in economic disaster and hyper-inflation and resulted in the popular support for the election of President Fujimori.  After his disastrous first term, very few would have considered Garcia's comeback to be possible.  

Many in Peru did not like Ollanta Humala's relationship with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez whom they felt was interfering with Peruvian affairs.  Garcia and Chavez have had a clash of words many times before this election and many saw a vote for Garcia as a vote against Humala and Chavez.

Humala accepted his defeat and saluted Garcia and his party. This statement was, however, rejected by Humala's spokeswoman.