Keiko Fujimori sworn in as Peru’s first woman president by direct vote after razor-thin election win

Conservative Keiko Fujimori has been sworn in as Peru’s new president after winning the position following weeks of protests, fraud accusations and the review of contested ballots in a razor-thin race.

Fujimori won 50.135 per cent of the vote in the 7 June runoff to clinch the nation’s top office in her fourth run for the presidency, just ahead of leftist congressman Roberto Sanchez’s 49.865 per cent, a difference of about 50,000 votes out of 18 million.

She is the first woman to be elected president by direct vote in the country.

Fujimori, 51, is the daughter of late President Alberto Fujimori, who governed the country with an iron fist from 1990 to 2000 and was credited with defeating Maoist insurgents and taming runaway hyperinflation.

But the Fujimoris are still a controversial dynasty in Peru. Alberto served 16 years in prison for human-rights abuses and Keiko spent years under investigation over campaign financing allegations, which were dropped last year.

She was imprisoned multiple times between 2018 and 2020 during the investigation, spending nearly a year and a half in jail.

Her win reaffirms Latin America’s rightward shift, and other conservative leaders in the region, including Argentina’s Javier Milei, Chile’s José Antonio Kast and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele, have already congratulated the president-elect.

Read more: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/keiko-fujimori-has-won-the-peru-presidential-race/hmf1cjh7v

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