Peru's Vote Restores Senate as Crowded Presidential Field Heads to Likely Runoff

Just after dawn in Lima, voters shuffled into neighborhood schools carrying paper slips with the numbers of their polling stations, bracing for a ballot that runs longer than many grocery lists.

By the time polls closed Sunday evening, Peruvians had cast votes that will not only narrow a field of 35 presidential hopefuls but also bring back a Senate that has been absent from the country’s politics since the early 1990s. The election is unfolding amid deep anxiety over violent crime and fatigue with a political system that has churned through presidents at a dizzying pace.

Official nationwide results had not yet been released late Sunday. Electoral authorities and analysts widely expect no candidate to surpass the 50% threshold needed for an outright win, setting up a June 7 runoff between the top two finishers.

More than 27 million registered voters were eligible to participate in the first round, including roughly 1.2 million Peruvians living abroad. Voting is mandatory for most citizens between 18 and 70, a rule that tends to push turnout higher than in many Latin American democracies.

On a single ballot, Peruvians chose a president and two vice presidents, 130 members of a new Chamber of Deputies and 60 members of a re-created Senate. They also elected five representatives to the Andean Parliament, a regional body.

Administering the vote required a sprawling operation. The National Office of Electoral Processes said 92,720 polling stations were distributed across about 10,550 locations, with voting hours set from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time. International observers from organizations including the Carter Center, the European Union and the Organization of American States were deployed throughout the country.

In several Middle Eastern countries — including Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar and Saudi Arabia — Peruvian authorities had previously warned that registered voters would not be able to participate because of security conditions, underscoring how instability abroad can reverberate even in a domestic election.

The most striking change on Sunday’s ballot was institutional. Peru last elected senators more than three decades ago, before then-President Alberto Fujimori shuttered Congress and dissolved the upper chamber in a 1992 “self-coup.” Since then the country has had a single-chamber legislature.

That ends with this vote. In March 2024, Congress approved a constitutional reform to restore a bicameral legislature, effective with the 2026 general election. The new arrangement creates a 60-seat Senate alongside the 130-member lower house.

The reform also rewrites the rules of confrontation between president and Congress, particularly around impeachment. Under the previous unicameral system, 87 of 130 lawmakers had to approve the removal of a president. Under the revived bicameral structure, impeachment requires 40 of 60 senators.

Supporters argue that a Senate with distinct powers, which cannot be dissolved by the president in the same way as the lower house, will improve checks and balances and offer a more deliberative counterweight to the executive. Critics warn that the change could instead entrench congressional power and make it easier to unseat presidents, in a country where the office has already become precarious.

Peru has cycled through multiple heads of state over the past decade. In February 2026, Congress removed interim President José Jerí and selected José María Balcázar as another caretaker leader until the election. The winner of this race is expected to be roughly the ninth person to occupy the presidency in 10 years, a record that has eroded public confidence in institutions.

That disillusionment was visible on election day. “You can’t trust anyone anymore, nothing’s going to change,” said construction worker Juan Gómez, 53, as he carried two heavy bags with potatoes and rice to feed his five children.

Gómez’s skepticism reflects more than just political turnover. Public concern over violent crime and insecurity has surged, dominating the campaign and shaping the promises of leading candidates. Journalists have cited official data showing roughly 2,057 killings in 2024, and surveys in recent years have found fear of crime near the top of voter concerns.

On the trail, presidential hopefuls offered an array of hardline proposals: building “megaprisons,” tightening prison conditions, discussing the death penalty, overhauling courts, expanding resources for police and military forces, and expelling undocumented migrants accused of crimes. Rights groups and legal experts have raised questions about how some of those ideas would work in practice, but the political resonance of tough-on-crime rhetoric has been unmistakable.

The presidential field itself is unusually fragmented. Thirty-five tickets appeared on Sunday’s ballot, the largest number in modern Peruvian history. Final polls before the pre-election blackout showed no contender close to a majority and suggested a crowded, volatile race for the two runoff spots.

Among the best-known names is Keiko Fujimori, leader of the right-wing Fuerza Popular party and daughter of Alberto Fujimori. She has run for president three times before — in 2011, 2016 and 2021 — and entered this campaign again as a frontrunner in several surveys, emphasizing law-and-order themes and her party’s congressional experience.

Also competitive in pre-election polling were Rafael López Aliaga, a conservative businessman and former Lima mayor who has promoted building prisons in the Amazon and pushing through judicial reforms, and Carlos Álvarez, a comedian turned politician who has campaigned as a populist outsider with a security-first message. A mix of centrist, leftist and right-wing candidates rounded out the rest of the ballot.

Because of the large field and mandatory voting, even small shifts in support can be decisive in determining which two candidates advance. With no official tallies yet available, analysts cautioned that early exit polls or partial counts could be misleading until the electoral authority, known by its Spanish acronym ONPE, publishes more complete results.

Beyond Peru’s borders, the vote is being closely watched by foreign governments and investors, particularly those focused on commodities. Peru is one of the world’s leading copper producers, and mining accounts for a substantial share of the country’s exports and economic output. Changes in mining policy, taxation or community consultation rules — or renewed political instability that delays projects — could ripple through global supply chains for copper and other critical minerals.

In recent months, U.S. officials and business representatives have signaled interest in stable relations with Lima and legal certainty for mining investments, viewing Peru as a key partner in efforts to secure supplies for energy transition technologies.

For now, though, the immediate question is domestic: whether this election can produce a government capable of confronting crime and corruption while navigating a new institutional landscape. When the preliminary counts begin to clarify which presidential candidates are headed to a June runoff and how the new Congress is composed, Peruvians will have their first indication of whether the return to bicameralism marks a break from recent turmoil or simply rearranges the pieces of an ongoing crisis.