Dangerous anger at the conduct of presidential elections in Peru -- which included premarked ballots, ballots with the opposition candidate's name cut off or covered with wax, etc. -- was calmed by announcement of a runoff election between the two leading candidates. It seems likely that the final vote will be very much based on the rarely mentioned, but crucial, question of race. PNS commentator Andres Tapia writes regularly on Peru.

As the world focuses on the creative way an election was almost stolen in Peru -- which came as no surprise to Peruvians -- race is emerging as a leading campaign issue.

Beyond the drama of a runoff election lies the deeper question of Peru's future. The nation's unresolved racial and socioeconomic tensions will continue to bedevil Peru after voters choose between incumbent president Alberto Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, and his rival Alejandro Toledo, descendant of Indians from Peru's northern Andes.

Neither candidates leads a political party with history, infrastructure, or ideological sway. Aside from Toledo's obvious opposition to Fujimori's heavy-handed autocratic ways, both are along the same end of the spectrum of western economic theory.

Beyond the fury by at least half the country toward Fujimori's Machiavellian attempt to stay in power, the surge toward Toledo is fueled by race and the question of who best can lead Peru's complex multiracial society.

Peruvians themselves have defined the election along racial lines by casting the electoral battle as el Cholo vs. el Chino -- both deprecatory terms. Cholo is used to identify Andean Indians and Chino to identify all Asians.

But both men have embraced these labels with pride. At Fujimori rallies, the campaign song "El Ritmo del Chino," (Chino Rhythm) pulsates to the strains of the mestizo/Indian music of techno-cumbia. At campaign rallies, Toledo and his wife (a Belgian-born, U.S. citizen wife who speaks fluent Quechua) use both the language and the dance of the Andes traditionally disdained by white and mestizo populations.

Outside the campaign, Peruvians do not talk easily about race relations. Nicknames that identify physical features -- such as negro, (black), gringa (white skinned), chino, and cholo -- are common, but can be used as put-downs as well as terms of endearment.

Yet any attempt to draw parallels with the U.S. and Peru are quickly dismissed as irrelevant. The general view is that in Peru "we don't have a race problem."

But we do.

The vast majority of Peru is Indian and poor. Positions of political and economic power have been in the hands of the small white and mestizo elite for 500 years. This has kept Peru vulnerable to revolution -- guerrilla movements of the 1960s and later and even the leftist military dictatorship in the 1970s justified their actions in terms of the plight of the Indian.

Peru's multiracial society evolved as the Spanish conquistadores had sexual relations with the Inca while enslaving them. After the Catholic church decreed that Indians could not be slaves, the Spanish brought African slaves. When the church then declared that blacks could not be slaves, the elite brought in Chinese slaves until that was outlawed eventually as well.

This amalgam of cultures has made Peruvian cuisine among the most eclectic in the world, but the blending of spices has not translated into the blending of multiracial relationships.

So it is Chino vs. Cholo. Toledo, a former banker with the World Bank, highlighted his Indian features with a bandanna around his forehead tying back his long black hair as he led his outraged supporters to the government palace when the election results were suspiciously delayed.

Race played a big part in the 1990 presidential elections when Fujimori came out of nowhere to defeat front runner white novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. Fujimori capitalized on his outsider role, and his dark Asian features played well with impoverished Peruvians who usually only had a choice among white faces.

This time it's Fujimori who gets trumped by the race card.

But dark features and Indianness alone do not explain their appeal. It's their ability to be seen as connected outsiders that wins people over -- Fujimori's links to the land of his parents meant that Peru enjoyed heavy Japanese investment. Similarly, Toledo's Ph.D. in economics from Stanford and his non-Indian wife make him legitimate to not only the Indians but to many mestizos and whites. After all, in colonial Peru, Indians and blacks could legally buy their whiteness in court.

Peru's unspoken racial politics express themselves in the way parties position themselves as the legitimate expression of what it means to be Peruvian. Fujimori's party is called Peru 2000. Toledo's, Peru Posible (Peru full of possibilities). Another party calls itself Somos Peru (We Are Peru).

Defining what it means to be Peruvian has eluded us precisely because for centuries those in power have rejected all things Indian. But both Fujimori and Toledo have put together truly multiracial followings. racial national identity.

Having a president whose face looks more like Peru is not enough, however. Jobs and food and freedom must follow. Otherwise, as Fujimori is finding out, it's time to move on. Alejandro Toledo, the former shoeshine boy from the Peruvian Andes and now possibly the country's next president, take note.