Poll Tracker: Peru's 2026 Presidential Election

This article was originally published on February 11 and has since been updated. 

A series of impeachments, resignations, and interim governments have marked a tumultuous decade in Peruvian politics that has seen nine occupants of the presidential palace. The latest changeover happened less than two months before the first-round vote of an election marked by a high degree of fragmentation.

On February 18, Congress appointed José María Balcázar of the leftist Free Peru party to lead the country on an interim basis until an elected president is sworn in on July 28. A former judge currently under investigation in a bribery case, the 83-year-old Balcázar was expelled from a regional bar association under suspicion of embezzlement in 2022. While chair of the congressional education committee in 2023, he made widely condemned comments supporting child marriage and was the only legislator to vote against ending the practice.

On the night of his appointment, Balcázar dismissed suggestions he had plans to pardon ex-President Pedro Castillo (2021–2022), also of Free Peru, who is currently in prison for an attempted “self-coup.” Balcázar, who entered office with a 63 percent disapproval rating, is the fourth president to serve in the five-year term that began with Castillo’s 2021 election.

Can this year's vote be the reset needed to slow the revolving presidential door? After the March 15 car accident death of one candidate, a still record-breaking 35 candidates remain in the race for the April 12 first round. They are vying for the votes of a 27.3 million-strong electorate largely concerned about insecurity and corruption. If no candidate captures more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two advance to a June 7 runoff. 

Leading the polls are two right-wing candidates. One is former Lima Mayor Rafael López Aliaga (2023–2025) of the Popular Renewal party (RP). Also known as “Porky,” the politician and businessman’s style has drawn comparisons to U.S. President Donald Trump. The other is Keiko Fujimori, who heads the conservative People’s Force (FP) and is the eldest daughter of former authoritarian President Alberto Fujimori (1990–2000). This is the former congresswoman’s fourth presidential run, after making the last three runoffs. Although she last held an elected position in 2011, Fujimori holds sway in the country’s powerful Congress, where her party leads a right-wing bloc.

No other candidate consistently polls above 6 percent across surveys, but other notable figures include comedian Carlos Álvarez of the right-wing Country for All party (PPT); Alfonso López-Chau of the left-of-center Now Nation party (AN), a former central bank director (2006–2012) currently under investigation for alleged corruption during his time as president of the National University of Engineering (2021–2025); and congressman Roberto Sánchez of Together for Peru (JP), who was endorsed by the imprisoned Castillo, for whom he served as foreign trade and tourism minister (2017–2022).