Peruvians are heading to the polls Sunday to elect a new president from among a record 36 candidates and to overhaul the legislature, which for the first time in over three decades will return to a bicameral system.

This is one of Peru’s most complex elections, with the largest and most expensive ballot sheets in its tumultuous history. With such a crowded field and many voters deciding at the last minute, the outcome is impossible to handicap and there is ample room for surprises.

Although voting is compulsory, even frontrunners have little support, and many of the dizzying ballots are likely to be spoiled or invalid. The only sure bet: no presidential candidate is expected to secure more than half the vote, making a June runoff between the top two contenders all but inevitable.

The winner may struggle to govern effectively, as an expanded legislature will be the deciding factor on many policy decisions, sowing tensions that could prolong Peru’s chronic political instability.

Polls were set to open at 7 a.m. and close at 5 p.m. The electoral body will publish results as they roll in and aims to have 60% of votes tallied by midnight.

But several polling stations opened late due to delayed arrivals of ballots and people to man voting tables. The national body running elections, ONPE, said in a statement that the delays had resulted from problems with the company responsible for transporting ballots and had affected 75 polling stations in the capital Lima, less than 1% of the nationwide total.

Edla Gamarra had to wait more than an hour at her polling station in Lima’s financial district, San Isidro, where voting began only after 9 a.m.

“The ballot is terrible, it looks like a will,” she said as she left. “I had to fold it about eight times.”

Gamarra and her husband, business entrepreneurs in the tourism sector, hope these elections can bring an end to the cycle of political instability that has gripped Peru, home to about 34 million people, over the last decade. “We need stability, a strong state,” Fernando Delpino, her husband, said.

The winner of the presidential race will succeed José María Balcázar, a conservative caretaker who replaced Dina Boluarte in February after she was impeached for “permanent moral incapacity.”

Whoever prevails will be the nation’s 10th head of state since 2016. That year was the last time a Peruvian president completed a five-year term. Of the last eight leaders, only two were elected through a popular vote.

Far-leftist Pedro Castillo was the last to be elected in the 2021 cycle. The rural schoolteacher surged in polls only weeks before the vote to massively outperform his poll numbers in the first round and then win the final ballot against three-time runner-up Keiko Fujimori. Castillo was ousted by Congress and jailed in December 2022 after attempting to rule by decree. Three presidents have followed him since.

Despite its dysfunctional politics, copper-exporting Peru is among the region’s top economic performers. Gross domestic product grew over 3% for the second consecutive year in 2025, outpacing Colombia, Chile, Brazil and Mexico, while inflation is among the lowest in emerging markets.

Rising Crime

As in many Latin American countries, the top concern of Peruvian voters in this electoral cycle is rising crime. Homicides have soared by 40% over the last five years, according to official data.

“We need an iron fist,” said voter Emma Julián Turbe, 39, calling for a president who “takes action against disorder and crime.”

Many of the presidential candidates have pledged to crack down with proposals ranging from building El Salvador-style megaprisons to reinstating the death penalty.

Right-wing, pro-Washington and pro-market Fujimori is trying for a fourth time to follow in the footsteps of her father, the polarizing late president Alberto Fujimori. Other conservative candidates include TV comedian Carlos Álvarez, business tycoon Rafael López Aliaga and the former mayor of the capital Lima, Ricardo Belmont.

Centrist and left-wing contenders include sociologist Jorge Nieto, former central bank director Alfonso López-Chau and congressman Roberto Sánchez.

Peruvians will also vote to fill 130 seats in the lower house, and for the first time since the 1990s, 60 senators as the Andean nation returns to a two-chamber system.

The restoration of the Senate is intended to raise the bar for impeachment that has felled one president after another for years.

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