Lima, Jun 10 (EFE).– Keiko Fujimori conceded defeat Friday in Peru‘s presidential runoff to conservative economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a former United States citizen who garnered 50.12 percent of the vote compared to her tally of 49.87 percent with 100 percent of the ballots counted.

As previously reported by The Costa Rica Star, President Elect Kuczynski renounced his U.S. citizenship, which he had obtained by means of naturalization, for the purpose of running for the highest office in his native Peru.

“We accept these results democratically,” Fujimori said in a brief speech, adding that she wished her opponent and his campaign allies the best of luck.

Surrounded by 73 lawmaker-elects from her right-wing party, she said she was conceding defeat because “we’re a serious political organization and out of respect for the people.”

“We’ll be a responsible opposition that will always think about our country’s future, maintaining a central focus on representing the will of the more than 8.5 million Peruvians who voted” for her candidacy.

Fujimori, who came up just short in the 2011 election and garnered the most votes in this year’s first round of balloting, said in Sunday’s runoff she had had to contend with the “political power of this outgoing government,” referring to President Ollanta Humala, as well as powerful Peruvian economic and media interests.

The ex-candidate noted that her Fuerza Popular party was now “Peru‘s largest” with 73 national lawmakers elected and had a majority in the unicameral legislature.

A former member of Congress, she termed the result “historic” and a source of pride.

Fujimori, daughter of incarcerated and disgraced former President Alberto Fujimori, obtained 8,547,845 votes, according to the National Office of Electoral Processes, which said Kuczynski had garnered 8,589,529. EFE