From a radical ex-military officer to a former advisor to the U.S. Embassy in Peru are emerging as candidates for the presidency, in early pre-electoral testing that confirms a fragmented political panorama.
From a radical ex-military officer to a former advisor to the U.S. Embassy in Peru are emerging as candidates for the presidency, in early pre-electoral testing that confirms a fragmented political panorama.
Although the general elections are scheduled for 2026, the unofficial launching of the candidacy of the neoliberal Keiko Fujimori and the possibility that the current president, Dina Boluarte, will not be able to govern until then, have awakened electoral projects and ambitions.
At least five new parties are in the process of registering in the Registry of Political Organizations (ROP), among them those of the radical nationalist Antauro Humala, brother of former President Ollanta Humala.
This group has a name whose initials coincide with the name of the aspirant: Alianza Nacional de Trabajadores Universitarios Reservistas y Obreros (Antauro) (National Alliance of University Workers, Reservists and Workers).
The former Army officer recovered his freedom in recent months after being imprisoned since 2000 for leading an uprising against the neo-liberal ruler Alejandro Toledo (currently imprisoned for corruption) and has maintained an intermittent political activity, even from prison, and is dedicated to traveling the country to gain followers.
He is also seeking to register his party, Voces del Pueblo, of the parliamentarian and experienced leftist activist Guillermo Bermejo, who has a pending trial for alleged links with terrorism, a charge for which he has been acquitted twice.
The list of aspirants includes the neo-liberal journalist and former press advisor of the US embassy, Carlos Espá, broadcaster of the official radio and TV station of the government in Washington, who seeks to register his party, Sicreo.
In the same effort is the Primero la Gente party, of Miguel del Castillo, son of the veteran right-wing politician Jorge del Castillo and linked to evangelical groups, who was one of the unusual collaborators of Pedro Castillo's electoral campaign.
The conservative politician Francisco del Castillo, who has accumulated several electoral failures, is now trying to register the Peru Action party.
The list lacks an important number of groupings or attempts to form them, as well as old parties that have lost their official registration for not reaching the required percentage of votes to maintain it and are seeking to recover their validity, such as the Aprista Party, which has already managed to register.
To this must be added the 11 groups that make up the Congress of the Republic and among which there are fractions of parties that split during the parliamentary administration and that intend or would try to enter the arena of the competition for the citizens' votes.
On the other hand, there are no signs that point to the formation of coalitions in view of the division and dispersion of the electorate.
