Peru Heads to Polls in Historic Election

(MENAFN) Millions of Peruvians flocked to polling stations Sunday in what stands as the most crowded presidential race in the country's history, with 35 candidates competing for the nation's highest office as a politically battered democracy scrambles for stability.

Stations unlocked their doors at 7 a.m. local time (1200 GMT), with closure set for 5 p.m. (2200 GMT). The National Office of Electoral Processes confirmed that preliminary results are expected late Sunday evening, with authorities targeting a 60% vote count by midnight.

Three frontrunners have dominated pre-election polling, spanning the full breadth of the ideological spectrum — yet not one commands enough support to clinch an outright first-round win. Peruvian electoral law requires an absolute majority exceeding 50% to avoid a runoff, and with the vote splintered across dozens of candidates, analysts widely anticipate a decisive second round on June 7.

Leading the pack is Keiko Fujimori of Fuerza Popular — daughter of the late former President Alberto Fujimori — making her fourth run at the presidency by consolidating a firm far-right base. She is flanked on the right by Rafael Lopez Aliaga of Renovacion Popular, the conservative former Lima mayor who stepped down from that post to mount his second presidential bid.

Rounding out the frontrunner trio is Ricardo Belmont, an 80-year-old media magnate and former mayor whose surging anti-establishment appeal reflects widespread public disillusionment following a prolonged string of political crises.

That turbulence is precisely what this election is designed to address. Peru has cycled through eight presidents over the past decade, a revolving door of power driven by relentless impeachments and gridlock between the executive and legislative branches.

In a sweeping structural bid to reverse that dysfunction, Sunday's vote also inaugurates a return to a bicameral Congress — the first in more than 30 years. The reconstituted legislature will comprise a 60-seat Senate alongside a 130-member Chamber of Deputies, with all legislators serving five-year terms. The reform is expressly intended to introduce checks that curtail the institutional instability which has plagued the republic.

Participation is compulsory for all citizens between the ages of 18 and 70. The National Jury of Elections reports that upward of 25 million registered voters are eligible to cast ballots, underscoring the extraordinary scale of Sunday's democratic exercise.

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