LIMA — Voters in Peru will participate in a presidential election runoff on Sunday, choosing between left-wing candidate Roberto Sánchez and right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori. An Ipsos poll published on Thursday projected Sánchez with 43.8% of the vote and Fujimori with 43.2%.
Sánchez, 57, previously served as Peru's minister of trade and tourism. He received 12% of the vote in the April first-round election. Sánchez has pledged to pardon former president Pedro Castillo and to draft a new constitution for Peru. He also withdrew a previous campaign pledge to dismiss central bank head Julio Velarde. "The time has come for the true rebirth of our nation: a sovereign, just nation built from the foundations of the Peruvian people." Sánchez said.
Fujimori is the daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori. Her father governed Peru during the 1990s and died in 2024. He served 16 years in prison after authorizing kidnappings and murders during his administration. This is Keiko Fujimori's fourth campaign for the presidency, and she received 17% of the vote in the April first-round election. Her political party, Fuerza Popular, holds the most seats in Peru's congress.
Fujimori and Sánchez together received 29% of the total votes in the first round. Voting is mandatory in Peru. Over 6 million eligible voters abstained from voting in the April first-round election, and approximately 3 million voters submitted blank or spoiled ballots in the April first-round election. The total number of blank and spoiled ballots exceeded the vote counts for both advancing candidates.
Peru has had eight presidents since July 2016, with three of those eight being elected. Pedro Castillo, whom Sánchez has pledged to pardon, was removed from office in December 2022 after attempting to dissolve congress and govern by decree. In November 2025, Castillo received an 11-year, five-month prison sentence for rebellion. José Jerí was removed from the presidency following accusations of influence-peddling in meetings with Chinese business representatives. The current head of state is José María Balcázar. Sociologist and professor Santiago Pedraglio said regarding the mandatory voting, "If voting weren't mandatory in Peru, the abstention rate would be much higher." Pedraglio also said, "Politicians have lost a lot of credibility, and very few people trust them any more." Political scientist and professor Steven Levitsky said, "The level of popular discontent and mistrust was already high 20 years ago; now it's through the roof."