大象传媒

It was a polarised election, the closest of votes which was contested throughout by the eventual loser. But Peru now has a result and a new president.

A former village teacher and son of peasant farmers, Pedro Castillo pledged to nationalise Peru's lucrative mining and hydrocarbon sectors, and said he would aim to create a million new jobs in a year.

Opponents said this could lead to a flight of investors, but Arturo Lopez Levy, Assistant Professor of Politics and International Relations at Holy Names University, in Oakland, California, thinks he will prove to be more conciliatory now he's in power.

"In elections people speak in poetry but you have to govern in prose... I think he will honour his promise to tax more mining but we have seen this picture several times in Peru of populist leaders who say certain things but later they know they have to become more pragmatic."

(Photo: Pedro Castillo greets his supporters from a balcony after being proclaimed president-elect. Credit: EPA)

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