The Mayor of a tiny Andes town in Peru was chosen based on the answer to a simple yet convoluted question: heads or tails!
Peruvians on Sunday voted in their municipal and regional elections. And when two mayoral candidates tied at the ballot box in Pillpinto on Wednesday, the final result was left to a coin toss.
Both Wilber Medina and his rival candidate Jose Cornejo each won 236 votes (29.24%) in the municipal elections held in Peru this month, after which the "coin toss" rule of the electoral law in Peru was followed.
As per the electoral law, during the Peruvian election, if any two rival candidates get the same number of votes, the final winner will be decided based on a coin toss. It was the area special electoral board of Cusco that jumped in and applied the existing legislation, according to The Hindu.
Pillpinto, the south-eastern Peruvian town of under 4,000 people, near the tourist destination Cusco, however, is the first place to effectively implement the rule. While Medina, a 40-Year-Old teacher said he would work to earn the voters' trust, his rival Cornejo has graciously accepted the results.
This, however, is not the most bizarre outcome of the Peruvian Mayoral elections 2014. Fox News has reported that hundreds of candidates, suspected of ties to drug trafficking, were on the Sunday ballot. In what authorities called the Peru's most violent campaign since 2000, two candidates under investigation for drug trafficking-related crimes, even won the elections after a nation-wide vote for mayors, governors and municipal councils.
It must not come as too surprising though, that Peruvian leaders are not chosen based political merits or personal credits, considering the electoral campaigns are treated like talent shows. As The Guardian showcased, the candidates even come in the form of entertaining set of mayoral trading cards.
