LIMA, Peru — Both candidates ran similar campaigns, promising to wage war on crime and protect one of Latin America’s strongest economies. But in the end Peruvians chose an avuncular technocrat known as PPK for their new president rather than take a chance on a candidate with a toxic last name.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a 77-year-old former finance minister with Oxford and Princeton degrees, on Thursday was finally declared the winner of Peru’s closely disputed presidential contest, squeaking out the narrowest of victories over Keiko Fujimori, 41-year-old daughter of disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori.
With 100 percent of ballots counted, Kuczynski garnered 50.12 percent of the vote versus Fujimori’s 49.88 percent. His victory margin was only 41,000 votes out of 17 million cast.
It’s a remarkable comeback from April’s first round of presidential voting when in a seven-way contest he won just 20 percent of the vote while Fujimori captured 40 percent.
“Thank you Peru,” Kuczynski told a gathering at his campaign headquarters shortly after the election commission’s announcement. “Let’s not confuse dialogue with weakness. We will be decisive, but we will work for all Peruvians because many feel the train has passed over them and we want everyone to be on board.”
Balloting was held Sunday and the nation had been on edge awaiting the final results. On Thursday the election commission received the remaining votes from remote mountain areas, enabling it to declare Kuczynski the official winner.
Despite her first-round victory, Fujimori could not overcome voters’ wariness about the influence of her imprisoned father and the perceived risk of a return to his authoritarianism and human rights crimes. Her repeated promises not to repeat his mistakes or pardon him didn’t sway enough voters, analysts said.
Kuczynski had not made any public statements leading up to the commission’s announcement.
Pedro Spadaro, a congressman from Fujimori’s Popular Force party, called a news conference Thursday to say that certain “irregularities” in voting locations and monitoring had been reported and should be reviewed.
Fujimori lost the presidency similarly in 2011 to Ollanta Humala, losing a runoff after outdistancing him and other candidates in the first round.
Fujimori’s father served as president from 1990 to 2000 but was forced to resign after bribery and arms trafficking scandals emerged around his spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos. Alberto Fujimori was later tried and convicted on corruption and human rights charges and is serving a 25-year prison sentence.
