Politically weary Peruvians to elect new president and Congress

The April 11 vote comes as Peru is grappling with a coronavirus surge and years of political scandals.

Lima, Peru – Weary Peruvians heading to the polls this Sunday face an unlikely conundrum – an overwhelming majority of them will have rejected whomever they elect as their new president. That is the inevitable outcome of a five-way statistical tie between the leading presidential candidates, all of whom face unprecedentedly low support in a country devastated by the coronavirus pandemic and five years of political scandals. Any of the five could make it to an inevitable June 6 runoff, required when no candidate takes more than 50 percent of the vote. With the frontrunners only occasionally breaking into double digits, depending on the poll, that means that Peru’s new president will have been rebuffed by about 90 percent of the electorate in the first round.