The final round of the Peruvian presidential election took place yesterday.
Early signs were looking good for the conservative candidate, Keiko Fujimori. She appeared to lead in exit polls and in the election-night vote tabulations.
Following an all-too-familiar pattern, as the votes continued to be counted the day after, her lead continued to shrink until she eventually fell behind her leftist opponent, Roberto Sanchez.
With about 95 percent counted, she trails Sanchez by 42,000 out of about 19 million counted, a margin of about 0.2 percent.
Some accounts I follow still like her chances, arguing that the remaining votes are from overseas and should favor the conservative. She currently stands at 86 percent on Polymarket.
If the Fujimori name is familiar to you, Keiko is the oldest daughter of Alberto, who served as president for a decade from 1990 to 2000.
Wikipedia inevitably describes her politics as “far-right.” Her opponent, Sanchez, is described as “anti-Fujimorism,” whatever that may be. His coalition includes among its founding members the Peru Communist Party.
I know nothing about Peruvian politics. But I am to understand that urban and overseas voters vote for the far right and rural votes all go communist. If you say so.
It seems likely that, either way, the contest will be decided by a handful of votes. The stakes could not be higher.
As I point out, right-wing parties are on the rise all over the globe. But when and where they win, the result is that leftist policies are not adopted for some finite interval of time.
Where leftists win, all too often, millions die.
Choose accordingly.
