{"id":723717,"date":"2026-04-12T23:17:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/723717\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T23:17:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T23:17:22","slug":"peru-votes-for-ninth-president-in-10-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/723717\/","title":{"rendered":"Peru votes for ninth president in 10 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

LIMA, Peru (AP) \u2014 A former minister, a comedian and a political dynasty heiress are among the 35 candidates hoping to become Peru\u2019s ninth president in just 10 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s election is taking place during a surge in violent crime<\/a> and corruption, fueling widespread discontent among voters, who largely view candidates as dishonest and unprepared for the presidency. Many of the candidates have responded to the crime concerns with wide-ranging proposals, including building megaprisons, restricting food for prisoners and reinstating the death penalty for serious crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t trust anyone anymore, nothing\u2019s going to change,\u201d construction worker Juan G\u00f3mez, 53, said as he carried two heavy bags with potatoes and rice to feed his five children. \u201c(Criminals) come on motorcycles, put a gun to your head\u2026 you look around and there\u2019s no police officer. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you going to do? You just let them rob you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know about the latest presidential contest.<\/p>\n

Who is voting?<\/p>\n

Voting is mandatory for Peruvians from the ages of 18 to 70. More than 27 million people are registered, and of those, about 1.2 million are expected to cast ballots from abroad, mainly in the United States and Argentina.<\/p>\n

A candidate needs more than 50% of votes to win outright. However, a runoff in June is virtually assured given the deeply divided electorate and the pool of candidates, the largest in the Andean country\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

What are the issues?<\/p>\n

A major preoccupation is surging crime, which has led to frequent protests. Homicides have doubled and cases of extortion have increased fivefold this decade, according to official data.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get on the bus, and you have to sit far from the driver; you don\u2019t know if you\u2019ll make it home alive,\u201d retiree Ra\u00fal Zevallos, 63, said. \u201cCriminals drive by on motorcycles, shoot, kill the driver, and you could die, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 200 public transportation drivers were killed in Peru in 2025. The same year, a national survey carried out by the state\u2019s National Institute of Statistics and Informatics found that 84% of respondents in urban areas feared becoming victims of a crime in the following 12 months.<\/p>\n

Who are the candidates?<\/p>\n

Thirty-five names are on the ballot, including Keiko Fujimori<\/a>, a conservative former congresswoman and daughter of the late President Alberto Fujimori<\/a>. This marks her fourth attempt to become president.<\/p>\n

Keiko Fujimori has promised to crack down on crime with an iron fist, but she has also defended laws that experts say make it difficult to prosecute criminals. The laws, which her party backed in recent years, eliminated preliminary detention in certain cases and raised the threshold for seizing criminal assets.<\/p>\n

If elected, she has said judges presiding over criminal cases will be anonymous and prisoners will have to work to earn their food.<\/p>\n

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Also running is Rafael L\u00f3pez Aliaga, the conservative former mayor of Peru\u2019s capital, Lima. He has proposed building prisons in the country\u2019s Amazon region<\/a>, allowing judges to conceal their identities and expelling foreigners who are living illegally in Peru. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, comedian-turned-politician Carlos \u00c1lvarez has tried to garner support by promising to convene the leaders of El Salvador, Denmark and Singapore to tap their expertise in security.<\/p>\n

New Senate<\/p>\n

Peruvians are also choosing a bicameral Congress for the first time in more than 30 years, following recent reforms of the legislature that will concentrate a great deal of power in the new upper chamber. The president won\u2019t be able to dissolve the new Senate, though the chamber will be able to remove a president from power.<\/p>\n

Under the new bicameral structure, impeaching the president will be easier, with the Senate only needing 40 of the 60 senators to approve it. Previously, 87 of 130 lawmakers in the unicameral chamber had to vote in favor of removal, and they frequently exercised that power, contributing to the country\u2019s revolving door of presidents<\/a> in the last decade.<\/p>\n

The bicameral system is returning even though 80% of voters rejected it in a 2018 referendum. Lawmakers amended the Constitution in 2024 to make it possible.<\/p>\n

Alejandro Boyco, a researcher at the Institute of Peruvian Studies, said the Senate will appoint and sanction high-ranking officials, including the country\u2019s ombudsman, constitutional court members and some central bank directors. Senators will also review and amend bills from the lower chamber.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve concentrated too much power in a 60-people chamber,\u201d Boyco said. \u201cThey are not going to be immune to being corrupt.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIMA, Peru (AP) \u2014 A former minister, a comedian and a political dynasty heiress are among the 35…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":723718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[191994,299990,3881,299986,1613,17628,110877,57,13025,299989,257793,1612,50,3416,82644,80,299987,299988,136845,4217,333,103,107],"class_list":["post-723717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-alberto-fujimori","tag-alejandro-boyco","tag-ap-top-news","tag-carlos-lvarez","tag-central-america","tag-corruption","tag-garcia-cano","tag-general-news","tag-impeachment","tag-juan-gmez","tag-keiko-fujimori","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-peru","tag-peru-government","tag-politics","tag-rafael-lpez-aliaga","tag-ral-zevallos","tag-run-off-elections","tag-south-america","tag-voting","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116394291867506483","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}