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Keiko Fujimori became the elected president of Peru on Monday after the completion of 100% of the tally of ballots from the presidential runoff, according to the official results published by the ONPE, the National Office of Electoral Processes.
The candidate from Fuerza Popular received 50.135% of the valid votes, equivalent to 9,223,396 ballots, compared to 49.865% and 9,173,755 votes for the leftist Roberto Sánchez Palomino, from Juntos por el Perú.
The difference between the two was just 49,641 votes, one of the narrowest margins recorded in a Peruvian presidential election in recent decades, according to BBC.
The runoff took place on June 7 in a climate of strong political polarization, and the processing of disputed and challenged ballots extended the counting period for 22 days, during which Sánchez gained a lead only to lose it in the final stretch.
A decisive factor was the vote from abroad: Fujimori dominated with 63.4% of the ballots cast outside of Peru—184,435 votes compared to 106,338 for his rival—with support of 76.5% among Peruvians living in the United States.
Sánchez's party filed a lawsuit to annul the votes from abroad, claiming irregularities, but the National Jury of Elections (JNE) had already dismissed previous requests for being submitted beyond the legal deadline.
The president of the JNE, Roberto Burneo, denied any narrative of fraud and confirmed that the election took place with "full normalcy and regularity."
The result still needs to be formally announced by the JNE, the body responsible for resolving the final challenges and officially declaring the elected president for the 2026-2031 term.
If the process goes smoothly, Fujimori would take office on July 28.
After the conclusion of the counting, Fujimori herself reacted on the social network X: "We await the proclamation from the JNE with great humility, prudence, and responsibility. We are increasingly closer to starting a path of order and hope for all Peruvians."
At 51 years old, Fujimori becomes the first woman elected president of Peru through popular vote, as the former president Dina Boluarte took office in 2022 through constitutional succession following the dismissal of Pedro Castillo, not through direct election.
This victory comes in her fourth consecutive attempt for the presidency, after losing the run-offs in 2011 to Ollanta Humala, in 2016 to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski by just 42,000 votes, and in 2021 to Pedro Castillo.
Fujimori will also be the ninth person to hold the presidency of Peru in the last ten years, a country marked by a deep political instability in which most of its leaders left office amid accusations of corruption or parliamentary procedures to remove them.
His father, former president Alberto Fujimori, who governed Peru from 1990 to 2000, passed away on September 12, 2024 at the age of 86 without seeing his daughter come to power.
With the consolidated results and the JNE's proclamation as the only pending step, Fujimori inherits a highly polarized country and faces the challenge of achieving the stability that eluded all of his recent predecessors.
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