Fujimori intends to run for Peruvian presidency

October 6, 2005

Alberto Fujimori, the former president of Peru currently in de facto exile, showed his intention to run in the Peruvian presidential election of April 2006 at a press conference in Tokyo reportedly.

Fujimori was stripped of the presidency by the Peruvian parliament in 2000 during his visit to Japan. Since then, he has been able to remain in Japan due to the dual nationality which he holds as a result of his parents having been Japan-born immigrants, even though a Peruvian court accused him and requested that the Japanese government deport him. At the press conference Fujimori asserted that there was no legal barrier that would prevent him from running in the presidential election. He said also that "three tenths of Peruvian people support me".

Candidates for the election will be accepted until January 2006. Although Fujimori received his new Peruvian passport in September 2005, he did not clarify precisely when he would be returning to Peru.