Peru's President-Elect Keiko Fujimori: A Journey Marked by Three Previous Defeats

Keiko Fujimori has been announced as Peru’s new president-elect. The 51-year-old, daughter of the late President Alberto Fujimori and Susana Higuchi, had previously lost three presidential elections. She first became the only woman to enter a presidential run-off in Peru in 2011, but was defeated. She contested again in 2016 and 2021, losing on both occasions. In this election, Fujimori won the second round of voting held on 7 June. The National Office of Electoral Processes released the final vote count showing her party, Popular Force, ahead of left-wing candidate Roberto Sánchez of the Together for Peru party. The margin of victory was just 49,641 votes out of approximately 18 million cast. Fujimori secured 50.13% of valid votes compared to Sánchez’s 49.86%. She is scheduled to be inaugurated on 28 July and is expected to serve a five-year term alongside First Vice President Luis Fernando Galarreta and Second Vice President Miguel Ángel Torres Morales. She will become Peru’s ninth president in the last ten years. In a post on X following the official announcement, Fujimori thanked voters for their support and said Peru was entering a ‘new chapter’. She pledged to lead the transition with ‘humility and a deep sense of responsibility’. After the final vote count was released, she alleged irregularities in overseas voting and said she would appeal to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The National Election Jury, in its declaration of Fujimori’s victory, stated that a review found no such inconsistencies in the voting and rejected the appeal filed by Together for Peru.