Both candidates are right-leaning, US-educated politicians.
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Kuczynski, or PPK as he is nearly universally known in Peru, was born in the South American state but educated overseas, beginning his career at the World Bank as an economist before coming back to serve as deputy manager of the Peruvian Central Bank.
(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd). Electoral workers carry voting boxes to a polling station in Lima, Peru, Saturday, June 4, 2016.
caMarina Navarro, head of Amnesty International’s Peru branch, called on Kuczynski to address the many unresolved human rights legacy issues left by Alberto Fujimori’s 1990-2000 presidency, including finally providing compensation to the thousands of victims of forced sterilizations under a notorious population control program. FILE – In this October 29, 2013 file photo, jailed former President Alberto Fujimori attends a hearing at a police base on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. They had him at 50.9 percent of support compared to Fujimori.
Quick counts of ballots predict a razor-thin result in Peru’s presidential election with a former World Bank economist apparently enjoying a slight edge over the daughter of imprisoned ex-President Alberto Fujimori.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s lead over Keiko Fujimori in Peru’s presidential runoff narrowed to just 0.64 percent on Monday with 92.6 percent of the ballots counted.
Keiko, meanwhile, struck a more downbeat note while citing the tight result, within pollsters’ margin of error, as a source of hope.
Addressing cheering supporters from the balcony of his campaign headquarters, the former World Bank economist urged them to be vigilant against fraud at the ballot box but otherwise sounded as if he had already been declared the victor.
He has vowed to have a government built on consensus.
For her critics, Ms. Fujimori hasn’t done enough to distance herself from her father’s misdeeds and tens of thousands of Peruvians marched against her in Lima on Tuesday. Close to 885,000 eligible Peruvian voters live overseas per the country’s elections body, with the largest shares in the United States (31 percent), where Kuczynski, known as PPK, lived for years, followed by Spain and Argentina (14 percent each).
Fujimori, who earned an MBA at Columbia University, is also seen as supporting market capitalism, but with a strong commitment to improving education, reducing poverty and delivering on projects.
Kuczynski told his followers at a rally in front of his Lima campaign headquarters not to remain vigilant so the election would not be stolen at the polls.
The reference wasn’t just to the elder Fujimori’s well-known ties to corruption, organized crime and death squads, but an attempt to draw attention to a string of scandals that have hobbled the younger Fujimori in the final stretch – most notably a report that one of her big fundraisers and the secretary general of her party is the target of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigation, AP reported.
A former New York City investment banker who owns a red Porsche and a Miami condo in the exclusive Coconut Grove neighborhood is probably going to be the next president of Peru after Sunday’s election.
Her running mate, Jose Chlimper, is also in hot water for orchestrating the broadcast of a doctored audio tape in an attempt to clear the name of the party boss. Kuczynski is ahead by more than 103,000 votes, but officials said they were still counting votes, including absentee ballots cast overseas. Instead of rebels, Keiko Fujimori promised to wield an iron fist against crime, a top voter concern. In particular, she pledged to implement a state of emergency to tackle insecurity in Lima, and to isolate criminals in remote Andean prisons.
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She also tried to cast her rival, the son of a Jewish-Polish immigrant who is married to an American and spent decades in business outside Peru, as part of the white elite establishment that has traditionally overlooked the needs of the poor.
