Earlier this week I wrote a diary about the Peruvian runoff election for president. I’m not going to rehash all the details from the previous diary, but basically as I left it, it was a neck-and-neck race between elderly center-right economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and corrupt right-wing authoritarian Keiko Fujimori, with exit polls showing PPK leading by one or two percent. I had promised a few kossacks that I would give another update when we had a final result, and now the results are in. PPK won by a hair’s breadth.
El Comercio is reporting that with over 99.9% of the vote counted, la Oficina Nacional de Procesos Electorales (ONPE), the body responsible for conducting elections, has certified PPK the winner with 50.12% of the vote compared to Keiko’s 49.88%. Keiko has accepted the results, which means that the election will end peacefully with the fujimorista party Fuerza Popular remaining as the opposition. This marks 21 consecutive years of peaceful transition since Keiko’s father Alberto Fujimori was reelected in 1995 after seizing power from Congress in the “auto-coup” of 1992.
Thank you to those of you who have followed this election with me and helped encourage my wife and I when it was still undecided!