Peru’s mid-term elections: a major defeat for President Castillo

PERU - In Brief 02 Oct 2022 by Alfredo Thorne

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Today, Peru elected regional and local authorities--Governors and Mayors. This was the first-time voters went back to the ballots since the July 28, 2021, election when President Castillo was elected. From the first exit polls released today at 5pm (new results are due tonight at 10pm Lima time), we can underscore the following remarks: First, Rafael Lopez de Aliaga, from Renovación Popular party has taken the lead with 26.8% of the votes ahead of the runner-up Mr. Daniel Urresti, from Podemos Perú with 25.8%. Although polls published ahead of the election had given the lead to Mr. Urresti, Mr. Aliaga had a late surge in popularity at the expense of other small parties. Having been a right-wing critic of President Castillo and his left-wing policies, this could be interpreted as a protest vote against Castillo. Second, it is surprising that Peru Libre, the government party, had not taken a single position. We have only seen the exit polls for governors and provincial majors and not for district mayors, but the rejection vote is surprising. Moreover, Juntos por el Peru, the other party supporting the government, has failed to win any election as well. Third, at the provincial level most of the elections had been won by regional political parties, mostly unknown. Although this may indicate that the regional agenda is alive , none of the traditional parties have been able to lead this agenda. It is surprising that the regional national political parties that won in July 2021, had failed to capture any election. Aside from Peru Libre, this is the case of Fuerza Popular, from Keiko Fujimori, or Acción Popular, the party from former president Fernando Belaunde. The only part...