Peru: Keiko Fujimori keeps the lead in the runoff

PERU - In Brief 01 Jun 2026 by Alfredo Thorne

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Yesterday was the last day for publishing opinion polls on the runoff between Keiko Fujimori (KF) from Fuerza Popular, and Roberto Sánchez (RS) from Juntos por el Perú, due on Sunday June 7th. In addition, last night was the last debate between the two candidates.  Three polls were published on Sunday, and in all KF took the lead, by a small margin though. In Ipsos, she gets 40.4% of the total votes and RS 38.3%; in Datum 39.7% and 35.4%; and in IEP 36% and 30%, respectively. Moreover, in all three polls, KF has gained votes since the first reading of the runoff, while RS has slipped. Finally, KF has reduced her rejection rate and now is below that of RS. Although these readings are positive for KF, the vote difference is too narrow and within the margin of error of all the polls. Moreover, in previous elections, namely 2016, at this time of the election she also was ahead and yet lost against Pedro Pablo Kuczysnki. She has followed a different strategy and is avoiding confrontation and focusing on proposals and talking to the population at large. She has a good chance, but still we have one more week to go. Last night Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (JNE, the national electoral jury) organized a debate between both candidates. Typically these debates have limited impact on voters. But it is also true that the share of void and don't knows is still large and may swing the election. In the case of Ipsos these are 10.8% and 10.5% of total votes; in Datum 10.5% and 14.4%; and in IEP 6% and 26%, respectively.  In the debate KF was extremely careful and focused on her proposals talking to the population; RS was more confrontational, trying to underscore KF’s weaknesses. My re...