Peru's Ninth Presidential Election in a Decade Draws 35 Candidates Amid Deep Voter Cynicism

**TL;DR**: Peru holds its ninth presidential election in under a decade, with 35 candidates vying to lead a nation exhausted by political instability and corruption.

Polls opened Sunday across Peru as voters chose from the largest presidential field in the country's recent history. Since 2018, eight presidents have cycled through office—removed through impeachments or forced out by corruption scandals—leaving millions of Peruvians questioning whether any candidate can deliver stability.

Thirty-five candidates appear on the ballot. They include a comedian, a media baron, a political dynasty heiress, and a hard-line ex-mayor who compares himself to a cartoon pig. All major candidates poll below 50%, making a June 7 run-off virtually certain.

Keiko Fujimori leads the pack. This marks her fourth presidential run—she reached the run-off in each of the previous three elections. Her father, former President Alberto Fujimori, died in 2024 while serving a prison sentence for human rights abuses and corruption. If she wins, she has promised to deploy military forces to prisons and expel undocumented migrants within her first 100 days in office.

Voters express little enthusiasm. "Peru is a mess, and there's no candidate worth voting for," said one fruit seller in Lima. A clothing merchant summed up the mood: "We've been governed by nothing but corrupt, thieving scoundrels."

What it means: With 27 million eligible voters and no candidate exceeding 50% support, Peru faces another period of uncertainty. The next leader will inherit a country where citizens have lost faith in the political class entirely—and may lose again before term's end.