Peru's National Jury of Elections formally proclaimed Keiko Fujimori president-elect on Friday, closing a count that ran almost a month after a runoff decided by about 50,000 votes out of roughly 18 million cast.
Fujimori, who leads the right-wing Fuerza Popular party, took 50.1 per cent of the 7 June vote to 49.9 per cent for Roberto Sánchez, a leftist congressman from Juntos por el Perú, according to official figures reported by Reuters and AP. The tally stretched into late June because of overseas ballots, which broke in Fujimori's favour.
Sánchez has not accepted the outcome. "We will not recognise that government and will declare a state of political and social struggle," he said at a news conference in June, reported by Al Jazeera. His complaint centres on consular voting: electoral authorities dropped a requirement that overseas tally sheets be scanned, about a week before the runoff, and he says that left results at 119 consular offices open to manipulation. He asked the jury to annul those votes and lodged a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The jury rejected the annulment request as unfounded. The Organization of American States' observation mission, 92 observers from 21 countries, said it identified no irregularities in Peru or abroad that would have altered the result, and urged all sides to respect it. Reuters, AP and Al Jazeera each report that Sánchez has produced no evidence for the fraud claim.
Fujimori, 51, won on her fourth attempt at the presidency, after defeats in 2011, 2016 and 2021. She spent two years in prison from 2018 during a campaign-finance investigation; the charges were later dropped, Reuters reports. Her father, Alberto Fujimori, governed Peru from 1990 to 2000, was convicted in 2009 of human rights abuses, and died in 2024. She will be the country's ninth president in a decade, after a campaign dominated by voter concern over crime.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Fujimori, according to Reuters. For Australia the change arrives on settled terms: the Peru-Australia Free Trade Agreement has been in force since 2020, covering two-way trade worth $589 million in 2023 and duty-free access for Australian mining equipment and services.
Fujimori is due to be sworn in on 28 July, Peru's independence day. Sánchez's party holds the second-largest bloc in the incoming Congress, behind Fuerza Popular. His complaint to the human rights commission is pending, his supporters have marched against the count, and the proclamation stands.
