Protesters gather to demand the government provide security against the rising violence in Lima, Peru, March 21, 2025
PERUVIAN President Dina Boluarte said on Tuesday the country will hold general elections one year from now in an effort to end years of instability.
The deeply unpopular Ms Boularte said the April 2026 polls will elect a new president, 130 deputies and 60 senators. The bicameral election system has not been used since the early 1990s.
In a brief nationwide television address, Ms Boularte did not say if she would be a contender. She was appointed into power by the Congress in December 2022 after the ousting from office of then-president Pedro Castillo.
Mr Castillo was removed by the Congress after attempting to dissolve the legislature to avoid his own removal.
Ms Boularte said the upcoming elections will be “democratic, clean, transparent and orderly.”
President Boluarte has a 93 per cent disapproval rating, according to a national poll conducted by Datum Internacional in March.
Last week, Peru’s Congress voted to remove the interior minister from office after deciding that he had failed to adequately handle rising violent crime in the Andean country.
Public outrage has surged over an increase in killings and other violence, especially the recent killing of Paul Flores, the lead singer of the cumbia band Armonia 10. He was fatally shot a couple of weeks ago when assailants attacked his band’s tour bus after a concert in Lima.
