Fujimori leads Peru election first round and heads to run-off

The daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori held a strong lead in preliminary results from the first round of Peru’s presidential election and appeared headed to a showdown with another center-right candidate in a June runoff. With 40% of the ballots counted late on Sunday, Fujimori had 39% of the vote, while former World Bank economist Pedro Kuczynski held 24%. Leftist congresswoman Veronika Mendoza, who had made a late surge in pre-election polls, was in third at 17%.

I’m sorry this government had allowed not only crime to advance in the streets but has also permitted Shining Path to keep taking lives and shedding blood in our country.

Keiko Fujimori

Final results were not expected until sometime Monday, but Kuczynski’s supporters celebrated in the streets outside his campaign headquarters in Lima after two unofficial quick counts indicated he would edge out Mendoza for the right to face Fujimori on June 5. Fujimori’s chances in the run-off will depend largely on whether she can distance herself from her father, who was convicted of corruption and human rights abuses tied to a crackdown on leftist insurgents during his 1990-2000 rule. In a reminder of that bloody conflict, rebels presumed to be remnants of the Shining Path ambushed soldiers sent to safeguard ballots on the eve of the election, leaving at least six dead, authorities said.

We’ve made progress but not enough. We’re going to be a progressive government, socially and economically.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski

Fujimori