Peru’s discontented voters face straight left-right choice in election runoff

Roberto Sánchez, a leftwing congressman, on the campaign trail in Juliaca near Lake Titicaca in Peru. Polls give him a tiny lead in the race to be president. Photograph: Juan Carlos Cisneros/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Roberto Sánchez, a leftwing congressman, on the campaign trail in Juliaca near Lake Titicaca in Peru. Polls give him a tiny lead in the race to be president. Photograph: Juan Carlos Cisneros/AFP/Getty Images Peru’s discontented voters face straight left-right choice in election runoff Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of 1990s leader Alberto, is vying with a congressman to become country’s ninth president in a decade Peruvians go to the polls on Sunday in an election runoff that pits a perennial rightwing candidate, Keiko Fujimori, against a leftist congressman, Roberto Sánchez. Amid rising crime, chronic political instability, corruption scandals and voter apathy, they are vying to become Peru’s ninth president in a decade. Fujimori, who is the daughter of the late president Alberto Fujimori, won 17% of the vote in the first round in April . Sánchez, a former trade and tourism minister, took 12 % of the vote, edging out Rafael López Aliaga, an ultra-conservative former Lima mayor. The stage is set for a polarised left-right replay of the country’s last election in 2021. It is the fourth presidential run by Fujimori and it may be her best chance yet. She was thrust into politics aged 19 when she was named first lady after her parents’ marriage imploded during her father’s authoritarian rule throughout the 1990s. View image in fullscreen Keiko Fujimori is making her fourth bid to be president of Peru, a post held in the 1990s by her father, Alberto Fujimori. Photograph: Anthony Nino de Guzman/AFP/Getty Images A surprise second-round contender, Sánchez, 57, served as a minister for the populist leftist president Pedro Castillo and has claimed his legacy, garnering support from rural voters – even donning his trademark sombrero. Castillo was ousted in December 2022 after trying to dissolve congress and rule by decree. In November 2025, he was sentenced to 11 years and five months in jail for rebellion. Sánchez has picked up votes in the rural Andes, where many identify with Castillo and some believe he was unfairly pushed out of office. Pollsters predict an extremely tight vote in line with the last three election runoffs in Peru. The candidates are statistically tied , with Sánchez on 43.8% and Fujimori on 43.2%, according to an Ipsos poll published on Thursday. View image in fullscreen Supporters of Keiko Fujimori attend an election rally in the capital, Lima. The rightwinger got into the runoff with 17% of the first-round vote. Photograph: Angela Ponce/Reuters The election campaign, which started with a record 35 candidates in April, has ended with a choice between two candidates who represent just 29% of the vote. Voters are exhausted and deeply sceptical after a period of record instability in which Peru has pedalled thr