The 2026 presidential campaign in Peru could finally bring victory to Keiko Fujimori, daughter of Alberto Fujimori, the country’s former president (1990-2000) and leader of the Popular Force party. In Peru, opinions about Alberto Fujimori are highly divided: Some call him a hardliner who brought order to the country with an ‘iron fist’ policy, while others consider him a corrupt dictator.
This is the fourth presidential race in Keiko Fujimori’s career. She has previously lost in the runoff three times – in 2011, 2016, and 2021– to candidates from the center (or center-right) and left parties.
This year, on counting 99.859% of the ballots, results show that Fujimori has garnered 50.118% of the vote, placing her ahead of Roberto Sanchez from the left-wing party Together for Peru. Fujimori currently leads by around 43,000 votes, but this is standard practice in the highly fragmented Peruvian society, where the outcome of the presidential race could be decided by a razor-thin margin.
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The Fujimori family name has become a kind of political platform for Keiko Fujimori, but in a certain sense, it is also a curse for her own political project. Keiko Fujimori’s main campaign themes were centered around the fight against crime and political instability. She also promised a tough response to organized crime. This is entirely consistent with the continuation of the Fujimorism policy in Peru.
As a politician, Keiko has spent her entire political career within this political project. However, her policies have always adhered to a strategy of balancing its legacy with the need to build her own independent image, one that is integrated into the democratic paradigm of modern Peru.
To understand this, we must take a brief look at the phenomenon of Fujimorism in Peruvian history.