The final round of polls in Peru ahead of Sunday’s upcoming presidential election indicate that conservative former first lady and former Senator Keiko Fujimori is slated to win in the first round of the vote.
Peru, a country that has had nine presidents in the last ten years, will hold presidential and legislative elections on April 12 — the first such electoral event since 2021. The presidential race follows a series of impeachments that began with the removal of Marxist former President Pedro Castillo in December 2022, followed by the impeachment of Dina Boluarte in October 2025 and the ouster of interim President Jose Jerí in February.
Presently, Marxist, pro-child marriage lawmaker José María Balcázar is serving as interim president following Jerí’s removal from office and is expected to be succeeded when the next elected president takes office on July 28. Balcázar is facing several court proceedings including a trial against him on defamation charges originally scheduled for March. The courts agreed to postpone the defamation trial hearings until August, as both his presidency and congressional term will have concluded by then.
At press time, the last Peruvian president to have completed his entire term in office was leftist former President Ollanta Humalla, whose term ended in 2016. Both Humala and his wife Nadine Hereida are serving a 15-year prison sentence since April 2025 after the pair were convicted on corruption changes.
Sunday’s presidential election will feature 35 different candidates on the ballot from across the political spectrum. Given the large number of candidates, no polling firm has forecast that any candidate will be able to obtain the required 50-percent majority to win in the first round. Ahead of that scenario, a prospective runoff election between the two most-voted candidates is scheduled for Sunday, June 7.
As per the terms of Peru’s electoral law, polling firms released their final round of poll on Sunday, a week before the election, as local laws forbid anyone from publishing electoral-related surveys on the week of the election. A period of electoral silence in Peru is presently in place as of Monday.
According to the results from Peru’s three main polling firms — all three conducted between April 1-6 — Keiko Fujimori has virtually secured her spot in the prospective June runoff. Datum International’s survey found that Fujimori is leading the 35-candidate race with 14.5 percent of respondents expressing their intention to vote for her, followed by Peruvian comedian and television host Carlos Alvarez in second place, with 10.9 percent. Per Datum’s survey, Rafael Lopez Aliaga, the conservative former major of Lima, is in third place with 9.9 percent support. Another 16.8 percent of respondents expressed that they are undecided.
Fujimori, 50, is the eldest daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, a strongman conservative who ruled Peru between 1990 to 2000 and who oversaw the crushing of the communist insurgency group Shining Path in the 1990s. Former President Fujimori had served roughly half of a 25-year prison sentence on human rights abuses by the time he was released on humanitarian grounds in 2023. He passed away in September 2024 following a lengthy battle with cancer. Keiko served as first lady of Peru after her parents divorced.
The 2026 presidential election in Peru marks the fourth time Keiko Fujimori has run for the office, following three consecutive narrow losses in 2011, 2016, and 2021. If elected president, Fujimori and her Popular Force party vowed to enact a government based on “order, economy, and social” pillars. She has also promised an economic recovery program for Peru reminiscent of the one implemented by her father in the 1990s, seeking to “restore confidence” in the country through strong government intervention, deregulation, technological innovation, fiscal discipline, and a social market approach. Fujimori has also vowed a tough stance against crime and corruption.
Similar survey results showing Fujimori in the lead, albeit with slightly different percentages across all top candidates, were presented by polling firm Ipsos in its final poll. On Sunday, the Peruvian Market Research Company (CPI) presented the results of its survey to the local broadcaster RPP. Much like Datum International and Ipsos, CPI found that Fujimori is leading the race, but according to its results, López Aliaga is in second place and Álvarez is in third.
In addition to choosing one of the 35 presidential candidates, Peruvian voters will also choose 30 national-level senators and 130 congressmen, and five members of the regional Andean Parliament, while residents of Lima’s metropolitan area and Peruvians abroad will choose their regional Senators. According to Peru’s ONPE electoral authority, 27 million voters are eligible to participate on Sunday. Voters must present their National Identity Card to be able to cast a vote. Voting in Peru is compulsory unless the voter is at least 70 years old.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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