Former President Alejandro Toledo will officially announce his decision whether to run in Peru’s presidential elections next year by December, daily La Republica reported.
“I still haven’t made a decision about my candidacy,” Toledo told the daily. “We are in the process of evaluating the possibility. It involves a lot of [professional] things… and it’s a family topic as well.”
Toledo, 64, was Peru’s president from 2001-2006. According to recent polls, about 14 percent of the electorate would support Toledo if he ran for president in 2011 which places him in third place behind Congresswoman Keiko Fujimori – the daughter of jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori – and Luis Castañeda, who recently resigned as Lima’s mayor in order to run in the election.
Toledo is planning to travel throughout Peru in the meantime before he announces his decision.
“I want to listen to the people in the regions, provinces and to know how they see the problems in their zones,” he said. “They know that I’m not a candidate and that I am in the process of making a decision. And I have said that in less than 3 months I am going to tell the country what [the decision] is.”
In the event of his candidacy, Toledo said he would not rule out forming an alliance with another political party. “We are open, we are going to listen to various groups… It is very important to avoid dispersion and polarization.”
However, the former president did rule out a possible alliance with Keiko Fujimori, who he said has “a central campaign objective of liberating her father.”
“We don’t have a lot in common with Fujimorismo.”
Peru’s presidential elections will be held in April 2011. Current President Alan Garcia is unable to run for a second consecutive term.
