Lima (EFE).- The right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori, who is contesting the second round of Peru’s presidential elections against the leftist Roberto Sánchez, closed her electoral campaign this Thursday with a promise to achieve “national reconciliation” in the country and to govern only for a five-year term, without seeking immediate re-election.
In a massive rally held outside the Monumental Stadium, Fujimori presented himself as the option to restore stability to the country after a decade that has seen eight presidents in a succession of removals promoted by Congress, most of them with the votes of Fujimorism.
“This election will allow us to choose the path: whether we want to move forward in unity or go backward and remain trapped in hatred, insults, and revenge. We represent progress, they represent regression. We represent reconciliation, they are the ones who seek to divide all Peruvians,” pointed out the daughter and political heir of former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000).
Keiko Fujimori’s fourth candidacy
The leader of the Fujimorist party Fuerza Popular, who is running for the Presidency for the fourth time after having lost on the three previous occasions in the runoff against Ollanta Humala (2011), Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016), and Pedro Castillo (2021), assured that those experiences did not make her falter in her goal of achieving the country’s reconciliation.
«In recent decades, our country has been trapped in its wounds, and I know it would be easier for us to simply remain in insult and criticism. The difficult thing is to reach an agreement, to take a step towards dialogue and consensus, but I understood that true leadership is forged precisely in building those bridges over the deepest abysses, in extending that hand», indicated Fujimori.
In that sense, Fujimori addressed the undecided voters who may end up defining this election against Sánchez, who is competing in the name and representation of the imprisoned former president Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), who is serving an 11-year and 5-month prison sentence for his failed coup attempt at the end of 2022.
“I am aware that many have not voted for me, and to them I appeal that they may choose beyond our differences to choose for the future and our country,” he pointed out.
Acknowledge support
In that sense, the leader of Fujimorism thanked the support of Álvaro Vargas Llosa, son of the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, whom her father defeated in the 1990 elections and who was a staunch anti-Fujimorist until the 2021 elections, when the Nobel laureate supported Keiko Fujimori against Castillo.
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She also expressed her gratitude for the support provided this Thursday by the far-right Rafael López Aliaga, who missed the runoff by just 21,000 votes compared to Sánchez and alleged, without concrete evidence, that there was fraud against him.
The candidate took the stage accompanied by her daughters Kiara and Kaori, who stated that they want to share their mother with the rest of the Peruvians for only five years.
The candidate reiterated this by indicating that she only has “permission” from her daughters to govern for a single term, ruling out an immediate reelection which the Constitution prohibits, as her father sought, who governed for ten consecutive years until he resigned by fax from Japan to be subsequently sentenced to prison for human rights violations and corruption.
More than 27.4 million Peruvians are called to the runoff election to choose between Fujimori and Sánchez as president for the 2026-2031 term.
