Voter demographics

For the purposes of this research my country of choice is Peru. It is a country situated on the west coast of South America, with population of about 30 million. In the case of Peru, up to 45% of population is of Amerindian ancestry, 37% mestizo and 15% white. The poverty level is 25%, unemployment is 3.6%. Urbanization is about 77% (CIA).

An extensive statistic on voters is provided by the report on the 2011 general elections by Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (2011). The report states the figure of 20 mln registered voters and gives a breakdown of that number by different categories.

One of the important anomalies is a very non-uniform break-up of the country into electoral districts. The capital Lima alone accounts for 6.6 mln voters, a third of the whole country. As well, there are about 750,000 Peruvians who live out of country but are registered to vote. For the electoral purposes, they are currently added to the Lima electoral district, further increasing its relative weight. Second biggest electoral district accounts for 5.6% of the voters.

The report provides a breakdown of the voters by the education level. About 7.6 mln voters have education level less than high school.

More detailed statistics on participation are provided by the LAPOP report on Peru (2012). Self-reported voter turnout in the last Peruvian elections was 90.7%, one of the highest among the Latin American countries. What is also important in the breakdown of the voters is that the turnout remains almost constant along the quintiles of wealth, genders and levels of education.

LAPOP also presents data on the perceptions of democratic process and institutions. The report defines democratic stability as simultaneous trust in the incumbent government and high tolerance for the negative views. These two positions are simultaneously supported by only 16% of Peruvians, one of the lowest levels in the whole region. Trust in other institutions is presented in Table 1.

Elections	55%	Supreme Court	40%	Congress	37%
President	53%	Police	40%	Political parties	32%
JNE	50%	Justice system	39%	Democracy	60%

Table 1. Trust of Peruvians into democratic institutions (LAPOP 2012).

Trust in the president jumped from 36% in 2010 to 53% in 2012, separated by election of Ollanta Humala.

Major political parties

Elections in Peru are a competition between political parties. The general elections consist of elections of three democratic entities: the President, the representatives for the national Congress (130 members) and the representatives for the Andean Parliament (5 members from Peru).

Patrón Galindo expresses a critical opinion of Peruvian political parties (2010). He points out lack of solid organizational structure inside the parties since their exclusion from government under the President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2001). Parties lack grassroots support: voters almost do not identify themselves with the parties and don’t vote for the same party consistently expressing high volatility. Many parties are formed only before the elections to promote a specific presidential candidate and the whole electoral race remains very candidate-centered.

The four largest parties that are now represented in Congress are:

Gana Perú – left-wing political alliance formed for the 2011 elections by Ollanta Humala, who was elected as the President. Promotes fight with social inequality, injustice and corruption. Holds 47 seats.

Fuerza 2011 – conservative party centered around the candidate Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the former president Alberto Fujimori. Promotes the course of fujomorismo – economic liberalism. Holds 37 seats.

Alianza Electoral Perú Posible – centrist block holding 21 seats. Formed majority coalition with Gana Perú after the 2011 elections.

Alianza por el Gran Cambio – center-right electoral Alliance to promote presidential candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. Holds 12 seats.