Keiko Fujimori declared winner of Peru’s presidential election weeks after election

Right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori has been declared the winner of Peru’s tight presidential election, nearly a month after the election.

The 51-year-old won the support of 50.135% of the voters, held on June 7, to 49.865% to the left-wing candidate Roberto Sánchez – a margin of 50,000 votes, the figures of the Electoral Court of Peru showed.

The daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori is seeking the South American country’s presidency for the fourth time, promising to oversee efforts to crack down on organized crime.

Her election, coinciding with the election of Abelardo de la Esprilla in Colombia, marks a shift to the right in Latin American politics.

Fujimori said she would take on the role of president with “responsibility, humility and a deep sense of duty.”

“Every day in this transition is an opportunity to listen, to talk, and to arrive prepared for the start of the new government,” she adds, sounding upbeat about her slim appointment.

Sánchez, 57, said the run-off would be “very crowded” and would require legal action, arguing that strong support for Fujimori among Peruvian voters abroad was a sign of a lack of discipline.

After the results were announced last Friday, his party filed an appeal against the election court’s decision.

While former foreign minister Sánchez has stood on a platform of broad economic reform, Fujimori has benefited from fears of crime and political instability gripping the race.

Throughout the campaign, she upheld her father’s controversial legacy and promised a military crackdown on organized crime, particularly extortion that has been on the rise in recent years.

Alberto Fujimori was imprisoned for crimes against humanity and forced sterilization under his increasingly authoritarian leadership.

Keiko has pledged to attract private investment to boost economic growth and to immediately deport any undocumented immigrants found committing crimes in Peru.

Losing by similarly narrow margins in 2011, 2016 and 2021, she failed at a time of high political unrest in Peru. She will be the Andean nation’s ninth president in ten years.

Her swearing-in is expected to take place on July 28.

When she takes office, she will be the latest in a string of ideologically aligned Latin American leaders who have come to power in recent years, often toppling left-wing governments.

Colombia’s President-elect de la Esprilla will take office in a few days after winning the same razor-sharp election that promised to fight organized crime.

He and others such as El Salvador’s Naib Buquele and Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa have tried to reconcile with US President Donald Trump, who has focused more on Latin American politics in his second term.

The trend is to face Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the son of convicted former president Jair Bolsonaro later this year – currently the region’s main left-wing standard-bearer.