Keiko Fujimori edges closer to winning Peru’s presidency

Keiko Fujimori is poised to become Peru’s next president after running her fourth consecutive campaign, according to figures published late Tuesday by the elections regulator after weeks of adjudicating disputed ballots.
With 43,386 votes between Fujimori and leftist rival Roberto Sanchez, and no more than 39,300 votes in dispute, the conservative had enough of a margin to secure her lead. Fujimori had 50.1 per cent of the vote while Sanchez had 49.9 per cent with 99.8 per cent of ballots counted.
More than 18 million Peruvians participated in the June 7 run-off. The electoral authority has yet to officially declare a winner and planned to do so in mid-July. Fujimori’s party, Fuerza Popular, said it would wait for the count to be completed before declaring victory.
Peru’s next president will take office on July 28 for a five-year term.
The run-off results were certain to face challenges from Sanchez, who has said he would not recognise Fujimori’s government over alleged irregularities in the overseas recount.
Sanchez led the race earlier as rural votes were ‌counted, but ‌Fujimori closed the gap as ballots cast overseas began to be processed. Fujimori won an overwhelming majority of votes cast by Peruvians living in the United States, Argentina and Japan, where her paternal grandparents were born.
Sanchez’s campaign has filed a petition to reject overseas ballots, arguing that Peruvian consulates abroad did not use a government-provided app to scan tally sheets as required by law.

Peru’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement that, in late May, it had obtained authorisation from electoral officials to conduct voting at consulates without scanning tally sheets, but by sending them directly to the capital, Lima, to be processed after voting ended.
The ministry said the change was made because of problems with the scanning app during the first round. Sanchez’s campaign argues that the procedural change created opportunities for fraud, an allegation denied by both Peru’s national elections agency, ONPE, and the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
“Under these conditions of transgression of the rules, we will not recognise the government of Miss (Keiko) Fujimori,” Sanchez said on Tuesday.
Fujimori’s expected victory would finally deliver the job the 51-year-old has sought since 2011 and make her the first woman elected president of the politically turbulent nation.
It would add Peru to the growing list of Latin American countries shifting to the right, a trend that has just taken hold in Colombia with Abelardo de la Espriella’s win and that could be followed by Brazil later this year.
Since Fujimori’s party would hold the largest minority in the newly restored bicameral Congress – enough to block any impeachment attempts – her win was expected to result in greater political stability after years of oustings that led Peru to cycle through eight presidents in the last decade.

Of the eight former presidents, none completed a full term. Three were impeached ⁠and one resigned after just six days. Four former presidents are currently in prison, and Fujimori’s late father Alberto Fujimori served 16 years over human rights abuses during his decade-long ‌rule in the 1990s.
Fujimori, ‌who previously distanced herself from her father’s legacy, has leaned into it this election – casting herself as a strong leader best able to enforce order and stability as voters grapple with rising rates of extortion and murder.
Fujimori has pledged to deport all undocumented immigrants who commit crimes, give the armed forces control of the borders and make prisoners work to pay for their food, while replicating the high-security mega-prison El Salvador built under President Nayib Bukele.
Despite the political instability, Peru has maintained stable economic policies that have enabled the country to be one of the fastest-growing economies in South America.
Fujimori was widely seen as a guarantor of the economic model underpinned by Peru’s 1993 constitution, a business-friendly charter enacted under her father that helped the country grow faster than many regional peers and become a top exporter of metals and fruits.
Bloomberg, Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press