Peru’s discontented voters face straight left-right choice in election runoff | Peru
Peruvians will go to the polls on Sunday for a runoff election pitting perennial right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori against left-wing congressman Roberto Sánchez. They are vying to become Peru’s ninth president in a decade, amid rising crime, chronic political instability, corruption scandals and voter apathy.
Fujimori, the daughter of late president Alberto Fujimori, won 17 percent of the vote in the first round in April. Sánchez, a former minister of commerce and tourism, beat ultra-conservative former Lima mayor Rafael López Aliaga with 12 percent of the vote. The stage is set for a polarized left-right repeat of the country’s last election in 2021.
This is Fujimori’s fourth presidency and may be his best shot yet. She entered politics when she was elected First Lady at the age of 19, following the breakdown of her parents’ marriage during her father’s authoritarian rule in the 1990s.
A surprise candidate in the second round, Sánchez, 57, served as a minister under populist leftist president Pedro Castillo and claimed his legacy by gaining the support of rural voters, even donning his trademark fedora hat.
Castillo was removed from office in December 2022 after trying to dissolve congress and rule by decree. In November 2025, he was sentenced to 11 years and 5 months in prison for rebellion. Sánchez garnered votes in the rural Andes, where many people identify with Castillo and some believe he was unfairly dismissed.
Pollsters are predicting extremely tight voting, in line with Peru’s last three election runoffs. Candidates statistically linkedSánchez received 43.8% and Fujimori 43.2%, according to the Ipsos poll released Thursday.
The election campaign, which started with a record 35 candidates in April, ended with the choice of two candidates representing only 29 percent of the votes.
Voters are exhausted and deeply skeptical after a record period of instability that has seen Peru go through eight presidents since July 2016, with only three elected.
Other presidents fell into the role because of the vagaries of an unrepresentative congressional system and, in many cases, were unfit for the nation’s highest office. The last president to be ousted, 39-year-old José Jerí, was accused of influence peddling in secret meetings with Chinese businessmen. He was replaced by the current president, 83-year-old José María Balcázar, known for his support of child marriage.
“Politicians have lost a lot of their credibility, and very few people trust them anymore,” said Santiago Pedraglio, a sociologist and professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Lima. “If voting wasn’t compulsory in Peru, the abstention rate would be much higher.”
More than 6 million Peruvians did not vote in the first round in April, despite penalties for not voting. Another 3 million people corrupted their ballots in protest, leaving them unreadable or blank. Blank or spoiled ballots would win the vote.
“Public discontent and distrust were already high 20 years ago; now they’re through the roof,” said Steven Levitsky, a political scientist and professor of government at Harvard University. Peruvian newspaper La República last month.
Fujimori carries on the legacy of his father, who spent 16 years in prison for authorizing kidnappings and murders during his government’s “war on terrorism” before his death in 2024. He benefited from his father’s pressure despite facing the strong anti-Fujimori movement. mano dura He promises a tough stance on crime as Peruvians face skyrocketing rates of extortion and murder.
Pedraglio said some voters feared that Fujimori “will lead an authoritarian government and the separation of powers will not be respected.” His Fuerza Popular (People Power) party has more seats than any other party in the country’s congress, which recently reintroduced the bicameral system.
Pedraglio said Sánchez has raised fears among some that he will lead not only a “leftist government” but also a “bad government” like Castillo, who is widely seen as incompetent.
Sánchez vowed to release Castillo, whom he described as the victim of a “coup plot”. He also says he wants to return the government “to the people” and draft a new constitution. But he backtracked on his earlier promise to fire central bank governor Julio Velarde.
“The time has come for the true rebirth of our nation: a sovereign, just nation built on the foundations of the Peruvian people,” Sánchez told foreign journalists last month.
