She was a first lady at 19. Now she’s making her fourth attempt to win Peru’s presidency - CNN

- Keiko Fujimori, daughter of Peru's late former president, is making her fourth attempt to win the presidency in a runoff election on Sunday.

- She faces leftist candidate Roberto Sánchez with polls showing her with a slight lead despite three previous defeats in 2011, 2016 and 2021.

- Critics say she shares responsibility for Peru's political instability, which has resulted in eight presidents over the past decade.

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Keiko Fujimori was 19 years old when she made her international debut at a 1994 event as Peru’s first lady.

Dressed in black, the young woman appeared shy and nervous in front of the cameras on the arm of her father, then-President Alberto Fujimori, at the first Summit of the Americas hosted by US President Bill Clinton.

Keiko Fujimori assumed the role after her mother, the late Susana Higuchi, separated from her father following her public denunciation of corruption in his government regarding the handling of international donations. It marked the beginning of Fujimori’s political life.

This Sunday, at the age of 51, the eldest daughter of Peru’s late former president will make her fourth attempt at winning the presidency in a runoff election, despite three consecutive defeats in 2011, 2016 and 2021.

She is facing the leftist candidate Roberto Sánchez, and may be better positioned to win this time, with a slight lead predicted by some pollsters.

Fujimori insists she offers the best alternative to restore security to Peruvians and rescue the country, which has been beset by a constant state of political and institutional crisis that has resulted in eight presidents over the past ten years, and exacerbated by corruption scandals and rising crime and insecurity.

“We need order — order to live, order to invest, order to work,” the conservative candidate reiterated during the presidential debate against Sánchez, who is from the Juntos por el Perú (Together for Peru) party.

“I know that this election is not about me, but about the kind of government and the direction we want for the next five years. Either we want chaos and disorder, or we restore order and work for the future of our country,” Fujimori added.

The heir to Fujimorism became a congresswoman in 2000, founded Fuerza Popular (Popular Force) party, and spent 13 months in prison while under investigation for corruption and allegedly receiving money from the Odebrecht construction company to finance her presidential campaigns — a charge she has repeatedly denied.

In January 2025, a court declared the case against her null and void. Fujimori claims she endured ten years of political persecution.

A campaign with a different tone

Following the dramatic runoff election against former President Pedro Castillo in 2021— which was marred by allegations of voting irregularities — Fujimori has had to acknowledge mistakes in her political career as she seeks to win over voters.

“I know that throughout my political life I have made mistakes. I learned from them, but I also came back stronger,” she said, addressing Peruvians at the end of the final presidential debate.

During this campaign, the right-wing candidate has tried to project a more reserved, calm image with less extreme positions. “It’s true that we were confrontational, and we’ve corrected that,” she said in an interview.

Julio Carrión, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Delaware, told CNN that Fujimori is making “a more calculated effort to shake off that image of someone who was only trying to fight communism and everything else.”

That position “was a fundamental mistake in 2021 because she framed her campaign as either the fight against communism or the defense of democracy,” the Peruvian politics expert explained to CNN, referring to the 2021 runoff against the leftist Castillo.

After the first round of the 2026 election, Fujimori did not immediately join in the accusations of alleged voting fraud promoted by the Popular Renewal candidate, Rafael López Aliaga, as some had expected.

Her father’s legacy and anti-Fujimori sentiment

Alberto Fujimori’s complex legacy has divided Peru for decades and galvanized the anti-Fujimori vote during her previous campaigns, in which she was seen as a continuation of an authoritarian regime that posed a threat to independent democratic institutions.