Right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori has been declared the winner of Peru’s presidential election, nearly a month after voting took place.
The 51-year-old won 50.135% of voter support in the June 7 runoff election, defeating leftist candidate Roberto Sánchez with 49.865%. This is a margin of less than 50,000 votes, a figure certified by Peru’s electoral court.
This is the fourth time the daughter of disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori has sought the presidency of the South American country, this time promising to oversee a crackdown on organized crime.
Her election, which coincides with the election of Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia, marks a shift to the right in Latin American politics.
Fujimori said he would take on the role of president “with a sense of responsibility, humility, and a deep sense of mission.”
“Every day of this transition is an opportunity to listen, engage in dialogue, and prepare for the start of a new administration,” she added. It seemed like a nod to her thin mission.
Sánchez, 57, claimed the runoff election was “seriously jeopardized” and threatened legal action, claiming strong support for Fujimori among Peruvian voters abroad was a sign of fraud.
After the results were announced on Friday, his party appealed the election court’s declaration, demanding that the vote be invalidated.
While Sánchez, a former foreign minister, pushed for far-reaching economic reforms, Fujimori benefited from concerns about political instability dominating crime and race.
Throughout the campaign, she leaned on her father’s controversial legacy and promised a military crackdown on organized crime, particularly extortion, which has surged in recent years.
Alberto Fujimori was eventually imprisoned for crimes against humanity for extrajudicial killings and forced sterilizations committed during his increasingly authoritarian leadership.
Keiko also promised to attract private investment to spur economic growth and immediately deport undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in Peru.
She failed again, losing by equally narrow margins in 2011, 2016 and 2021 during a period of extreme political instability in Peru. Within 10 years, she would become the Andean nation’s ninth president.
Her inauguration ceremony is scheduled to be held on July 28.
If she takes office, she will become the latest in a string of ideologically aligned right-wing leaders in Latin America who have seized power in recent years and often toppled left-wing governments.
Colombia’s next president, de la Espriella, is scheduled to take office in a few days after winning a similarly close election on a pledge to combat organized crime.
He and others like El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa have tried to work with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has shown more interest in Latin American political issues during his second term.
The trend means Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who faces the convicted son of former President Jair Bolsonaro in an election later this year, is now the region’s leading leftist standard-bearer.
