Kenji, the other Fujimori

With nearly 100% of the vote counted it definitely appears like Ollanta Humala will face Keiko Fujimori in a June presidential runoff. Potential voters will likely face plenty of negative campaigning in the weeks ahead from both candidates including accusations against Keiko’s father, imprisoned and disgraced ex-president Alberto Fujimori. It remains to be seen how presidential race will affect the third member of the Fujimori political clan – congressman-elect Kenji Fujimori.

On Sunday, Kenji received the highest voting total of all the candidates running ran for Congress. Despite his overall lack of political experience, the thirty-year-old received at least 133,000 votes according to preliminary results. His high vote tally permits him to serve as Congressional president though he rejected it in order to “avoid misinterpretations.”

Kenji unsurprisingly ran as a candidate of his older sister’s Fuerza 2011 political party though he was not expected to emulate Keiko’s accomplishment five years ago when she received the most votes heading into the legislature.

Both siblings have invoked their father’s name in order to back a possible resurgence of fujimorismo to the Peruvian presidency. Keiko has tried to walk a fine line by praising “accomplishments” under her father’s decade in power while downplaying the scandals that led to his humiliating downfall. Kenji, meanwhile, appeared to be his father’s most vocal cheerleader and he claimed that his campaign victory served as a “vindication of the works and successes under Alberto Fujimori.”

Despite his electoral popularity, Kenji's economic dealings raised a few eyebrows. In February it was revealed in the Peruvian press that he sold his minority stake in a company to a fellow Fuerza 2011 candidate at eight times its original value. It should come as no shock then that he was one of the 370 legislative candidates who did not disclose their personal finances to electoral officials.

Image- El Universo
Online Sources- La Republca, El Comercio, RPP, CNN