In giving political newcomer Alberto Fujimori a landslide presidential victory, the people of this economically crippled nation rejected the free-market shock therapy advocated by novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. Fujimori, an agronomist and the son of Japanese immigrants, captured Sunday's runoff by 13 to 19 points, according to exit polls conducted by independent firms. Official returns were not expected for at least three weeks because of poor communication with mountain and jungle regions. Vargas Llosa, a celebrated novelist, conceded defeat three hours after polls closed. He told supporters he wished Fujimori ``success in the difficult responsibility the Peruvian people have placed on him.'' He urged Peruvians to put the bitterly fought campaign behind them. Vargas Llosa had been the early favorite. He won the most votes in the first round of voting on April 8 _ but not the majority needed for election. Fujimori, a 51-year-old former university rector, ran a shoe-string campaign against Vargas Llosa's well-heeled Democratic Front coalition. A political unknown just months ago, Fujimori gained the support of Peru's poor, Protestant evangelists and leftists opposed to Vargas Llosa's plans to privatize state industries and lift price controls. He takes charge of a country where four in five people lack a steady job, annual inflation is 2,000 percent and violence related to the Maoist-inspired Shining Path insurgency has claimed more than 18,500 lives in the last decade. ``I realize it will be a titanic task,'' Fujimori said soberly Sunday night, addressing reporters. He invited all political parties to participate in his government in areas where agreements could be reached. Fujimori's critics accused him of ties to the Aprista Party of President Alan Garcia. Many people blame the populist policies of Garcia, who by law could not run for re-election, for Peru's desperate economic situation. Fujimori, who begins his five-year term on July 28 in a country weathering its worst economic crisis of the century, has said little about the makeup of his administration. He has said, however, that he would not appoint members of the Aprista Party to his Cabinet. Vargas Llosa, 54, had pledged harsh austerity measures to revive the economy while Fujimori advocated continued price controls and subsidies for basic goods and services. Fujimori said his government would stress economic development over military and police repression as the best way to fight both leftist guerrillas and cocaine trafficking. He did not indicate where the money would come from for economic development. The Peruvian treasury is $100 million in the red. Peru is the world's main source of coca leaf, the raw material for cocaine. The U.S. government is pressuring Peru to reduce its coca production, and has offered to send U.S. soldiers to train Peruvian troops in jungle warfare methods to fight guerrillas. Fujimori said he shared Vargas Llosa's view that Peru ``must be reinserted into the world financial community'' and said he would seek to renegotiate Peru's $20 billion foreign debt. Garcia suspended foreign debt payments early in his government and international lending agencies eventually cut off credit to Peru. Many attributed Vargas Llosa's loss to a multi-million dollar media campaign that angered people in this country of 22 million people where the average annual income is $900 and the minimum wage is $45 a month. Vargas Llosa is widely associated by the South American country's indigenous and mixed-race majority with the European-descended coastal elite. Thousands of campaign supporters paraded and celebrated early today outside the run-down headquarters of Fujimori's Change 90 party in downtown Lima. The independent polling firm Apoyo gave Fujimori 51.1 percent of the vote to 37.8 percent for Vargas Llosa, with 11.1 percent blank and null votes. POP, another independent polling firm, showed Fujimori with 56 percent and Vargas Llosa 36.5 percent. POP put blank and null votes at 7.5 percent. Nearly 10 million Peruvians were registered to vote, and the law requires them to cast ballots. As the polls opened Sunday, armored helicopters crisscrossed Lima's skies. Tanks and troop carriers patrolled the streets of the capital, home to about 7 million people. Little violence was reported around the country on Sunday despite threats by the Shining Path to disrupt the elections. At least 10 bombs exploded Sunday in Huancayo, a highland farming center 120 miles east of Lima. Police said that one, placed by guerrillas at a polling station, killed one person and wounded eight. In a separate attack, rebels shot and killed three brothers. Police said a note was found on one of the bodies that said, ``This is how informers die.'' Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, said Sunday that he would seek improved relations with countries of the Pacific basin. ``I understand that in the land of my ancestors there is great interest in my election,'' he said.
