Right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori holds first place in the polls one week before Peru’s presidential election
3-MIN READ3-MINAgence France-PressePublished: 12:12pm, 8 Apr 2026Peruvians will choose from a bewildering array of 35 presidential candidates this Sunday, electing the next leader of an Andean nation beset by crime and a string of short-lived, scandal-tainted presidencies.
“Now any old person runs for office,” said 51-year-old teacher Jane Layza, pondering the plethora of presidential hopefuls, and how she will cast her ballot.
A few in the field are well known – a popular male comic, the daughter of a brutal autocrat, and a former Lima mayor who likens himself to a cartoon pig.
But no candidate was polling above the teens, and it was unlikely any would break the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a run-off. That has been frustrating news for fed-up Peruvians.
Pocked with stifling jungles, brilliant snowcapped peaks, and bone-dry deserts, this crucible of the Inca Empire has in recent years struggled with chronic political instability and a surge in organised crime.
The country has had eight presidents in the last decade. So many have been removed from office and jailed that they have a specialised prison of their own.
