With more than 95% of the ballots counted, the dispute for the second round of the presidential election in Peru remains open this Tuesday (9), with the left-wing candidate Roberto Sánchez and the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori competing vote by vote.
In the early afternoon of Monday (8), Sánchez took the lead in the presidential race and remains ahead of Keiko Fujimori in total votes.
Sánchez appears with 50.074% of the votes, while Fujimori registers 49.926%, according to the most recent update from the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) released at 3:28 am Brasília time. The minimal difference keeps the election result indefinite.
According to the official count from the Peruvian electoral body, after several hours in which the conservative candidate led the process, the left-wing deputy took the lead at 2:58 pm, Brasília time.
The conservative candidate appeared as the favorite in the exit polls, but it was already predicted that the deputy would gain ground in the final stretch, as he has strength in rural areas, which are the last to be included in the count.
Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, finished first in the first round, with 17.2% of valid votes. Roberto Sánchez obtained 12% of the valid votes in the initial vote, which featured a record 35 candidates.
The polling stations closed voting at 5pm local time (7pm in Brasília) on Sunday (7), in a day without serious incidents, unlike the first round, which saw technical failures and reports of fraud.
Fragmented first round
The country went to the polls in a very fragmented political scenario and with a record number of candidates.
Lucas Berti, political scientist and researcher on Peru at the South American Political Observatory, assesses that the current situation reflects a deep disbelief in institutions.
“It is a symptom of a process of institutional delegitimization that has been happening in recent years in the country. And this, to the extent that elected presidents are unable to govern,” he stated.
9 presidents in 10 years
Peru has had nine presidents in ten years. For comparison, presidential terms last five years, which would mean, under normal conditions of democratic stability, only two presidents in the same period. In practice, some heads of state lasted just a few days in office.
“In these years, the leadership that lasted the longest was that of Dina Boluarte, who remained in power for almost three years. But, after displeasing the opposition led by Keiko’s Fujimorist coalition in Congress, he also fell”, says Berti.
Furthermore, article 113 of the Peruvian Constitution allows the removal of a president due to “permanent moral or physical incapacity”, with Congress making this assessment.
This way, if parliamentarians do not agree with a law proposed by the president, they can activate the mechanism and overturn him in less than 24 hours, even if he was elected by the majority of voters.
For the political scientist, this facility highlights the fragility of institutions in Peru. In recent years, the Fujimorist coalition, with a majority in Congress, has concentrated power in the Legislature, the courts and the Judiciary.
Since 2008, Keiko Fujimori has led the Fujimori movement, founding the Fuerza Popular party, but has not yet managed to reach the Executive.
“Keiko lost the last three elections (2011, 2016 and 2021) in the second round, by very tight margins. And now in this election, in 2026, he goes to the second round with a larger margin of votes. Some institutes give an advantage to Keiko, others to Sánchez. Which indicates one thing: the election will be difficult and the result is still open”, says Berti.
Democracy in crisis: ‘chronic distrust’
The constant tension between the Executive and Legislative branches not only generated political instability, but also profoundly affected the population’s perception of democracy.
“The credibility of institutions is very low if we look at the last 10 years. And distrust in Congress exceeds 90%, especially during the process that would result in the fall of former president Dina Boluarte, in 2025”, explains Berti.
Recent data from Latinobarómetro, which assesses the quality of democracy in Latin America, indicates that Peru records one of the lowest levels of trust in institutions in the region. It is a “chronic distrust”.
According to the survey, 90% of Peruvians have little or no confidence in the government and Congress, while only 10% say they are satisfied with democracy. There is also a growing feeling of indifference towards politics or the government regime.
“It is very easy to create parties in Peru and they are parties called ‘little institutionalized’. They are parties that do not have effective roots in a society, which is not a party that enters the dispute for 20, 40 years. But rather parties that appear and disappear, just as there is no loyalty from the candidates to the parties, which also change coalitions easily”, explains Berti.
This entire context causes voters to see candidates as figures without solid foundations, which further fuels distrust and fear that those elected can be easily removed.
Unicameral x bicameral system
Unlike Brazil, Peru operated with a unicameral system, in which Congress had only one legislative house and 130 parliamentarians.
However, this year’s elections reestablished the bicameral system, with the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, for the first time in decades. Since the first round, in April, the country once again has a Chamber of 130 seats and a Senate of 60 seats.
In the new model, the removal of a president will require approval in both Houses, with the Senate acting as the final instance.
Until 1992, Peru had a House and Senate. That year, then-president Alberto Fujimori carried out a self-coup, closed Congress, sent soldiers into the streets and promulgated a new Constitution the following year. The text, approved by referendum, eliminated the Senate, a rule that was in force until this election.