Peru's presidential front-runners shift with election days away

Carla Samon Ros, Bloomberg News on Apr 4, 2026

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Peru’s presidential race shifted in one of the last polls before the April 12 election, signaling late momentum for the outsider candidacy of comedian Carlos Alvarez.

Keiko Fujimori, a three-time presidential runner-up who heads the right-wing Popular Force party, led the Ipsos poll for Peru 21 with 13% support, followed by Alvarez at 9% and former Lima Mayor Rafael López Aliaga, who slipped to third with 8% after months of running neck-and-neck with Fujimori.

All three are conservatives, delivering a law-and-order message to voters worried about rising crime. That includes former front-runner Lopez Aliaga, a conservative tycoon who made his fortune running luxury hotels and trains.

Behind Lopez Aliaga, fourth place in the poll, was a close contest between three left-leaning or centrist candidates. Congressman Roberto Sánchez, who served as minister under leftist former President Pedro Castillo and claims his legacy, saw one of the biggest rise with 6% support. He was followed by centrist former defense minister Jorge Nieto and economist Alfonso López-Chau on a left-wing ticket.

Almost 30% in the Ipsos poll said they’d submit blank ballots or were undecided in a crowded race of 35 presidential hopefuls, a record number.

Almost every Peruvian president in recent history has been impeached, imprisoned or ensnared in criminal investigations.

Castillo was ousted and arrested in December 2022 after announcing he was dissolving Congress and the judiciary and would govern by decree. The two presidents after Castillo were also removed by congress, which in February chose José María Balcázar as interim president until July.

A ban on publishing preelection polls begins Monday. Peruvians are also electing a new congress, which will become bicameral for the first time in 30 years.

With no presidential candidate likely to secure a first-round majority, the election is expected to go to a runoff between the two leading candidates in June.

The April 1-2 Ipsos poll of 1,217 people has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.