She Was First Lady at 19. Now Keiko Fujimori Is One Step From Peru’s Presidency
Keiko Fujimori was just 19 when she made her international debut as Peru’s first lady at the 1994 Summit of the Americas, standing nervously beside her father, then-President Alberto Fujimori. Three decades later, at 51, she is one step away from becoming the country’s next president — a political arc that has been shaped by her father’s complex legacy, her own legal battles, and three previous failed bids for the top job.
On Monday, with 100% of votes counted in the June 7 runoff, Fujimori secured 50.13% of the vote against leftist rival Roberto Sánchez, who garnered 49.86%, according to Peru’s National Office of Electoral Processes. However, the result is not yet official; the National Electoral Jury (JNE) must formally proclaim a winner, a step it has yet to take. Sánchez has signaled he will file a legal appeal to delay the proclamation.
Fujimori, the leader of the conservative Fuerza Popular (Popular Force) party, has sought to project a more measured image in this campaign, acknowledging past mistakes. “I know that throughout my political life I have made mistakes. I learned from them, but I also came back stronger,” she said during the final presidential debate. She has downplayed the confrontational rhetoric that marked her earlier runs, particularly the 2021 campaign against former President Pedro Castillo, when she framed the election as a fight between communism and democracy — a strategy analysts say backfired.
The daughter of Alberto Fujimori, who governed Peru from 1990 to 2000 and was later convicted of human rights abuses and corruption, has long been a polarizing figure. Her father’s regime is credited with crushing the Shining Path insurgency and stabilizing the economy, but it was also plagued by authoritarianism and graft. Keiko Fujimori herself spent 13 months in pretrial detention on charges of receiving illegal campaign funds from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, charges she denies. In January 2025, a court annulled the case, which she describes as ten years of political persecution.
This election comes amid a deep political and institutional crisis in Peru, which has seen eight presidents in just a decade, along with rising crime and corruption scandals. Fujimori has presented herself as the candidate of order, stability, and market-friendly policies. “We need order — order to live, order to invest, order to work,” she said in the debate. Her opponent Sánchez, a leftist who has tried to emulate the folksy image of former President Castillo, has struggled to gain the same grassroots appeal.
Julio Carrión, a political science professor at the University of Delaware, notes that Fujimori’s more disciplined campaign and the weakness of her rival may give her an edge. Another factor: the anti-Fujimori sentiment that mobilized voters in past elections appears less potent among younger Peruvians born after her father’s fall. Still, critics accuse her party of undermining democratic institutions, shielding allies, and fueling instability. On Saturday, protesters in Lima chanted “Keiko no va” — Keiko won’t make it.
Rafael Belaúnde, a centrist candidate who ran against Fujimori in the first round, has since backed her, arguing that she is better prepared now and poses less of a risk to the economy than Sánchez. “She has committed to respecting the Constitution, governing for the full term, and pursuing a market economy,” he said. If Fujimori ultimately prevails, she would become Peru’s ninth president in a decade — a striking conclusion to a political journey that began more than thirty years ago, when she was a shy teenager at a summit in Miami.