A familiar name has topped the polls for Peru's next president. Keiko Fujimori received the most votes in the election held April 10, but her failure to win an outright majority means she will face off against Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in a runoff scheduled for June 5. Fujimori is the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, who led Peru and enjoyed Japan's support during the 1990s. She has promised a different presidency from that of her father; if she wins the runoff, the world must hold her to that pledge.
Fujimori is a U.S.-educated congresswoman who served as first lady of Peru from 1994 to 2000, assuming that position at the age of 19 after her parents divorced. Her mother alleges that the marriage ended when she was tortured for disagreeing with her husband's human rights policies; the former president claims the scars on her back and neck are from moxibustion treatments.
Fujimori left the country to get a master's degree in the United States but cut her studies short and returned when her father was arrested in Chile and held for extradition to Peru. She championed his cause and was elected to Congress in 2006, winning more votes than any other candidate. She served in the National Congress until 2011, heading her own party and running for president in 2011. She came in second in the first round, losing in that balloting and in the subsequent runoff, to Ollanta Humala.
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