World
National parties concentrate the bulk of subnational candidacies in Peru
The presence of regional movements fell sharply amid the advance of national political parties. According to El Comercio, the shift accelerated after the reform promoted in Congress in 2024, although it did not become final.
Peru’s subnational electoral map changed markedly between the 2022 elections and the 2026 process. According to data published by El Comercio, national political parties came to concentrate 83% of the candidacies, while regional movements account for less than 7% of the aspirants.
In the 2022 election, 33,570 candidates competed through 115 regional movements, nearly half of the total. For 2026, that figure falls to 5,665 candidates distributed across 22 movements. At the same time, national parties went from 40,672 candidacies and 12 parties in 2022 to 73,060 candidates spread across 41 parties in 2026.
According to El Comercio, electoral alliances also grew, and now represent 12% of the aspirants, when four years ago they accounted for less than 1% of the field.
At the district level, regional movements fell from 47% of candidacies in 2022 to 6.3% in the current process. Overall, their participation declined by 86%, and in 11 departments they no longer field any candidates. The organizations that remain in the race are concentrated mainly in Arequipa, Amazonas and Cajamarca.
El Comercio noted that this reordering is linked to the reform approved in first vote by the Congress of the Republic on May 29, 2024, which proposed eliminating regional movements and allowing the reelection of governors and mayors. Although the initiative was not ratified in a second vote, it prompted a shift of leaders toward national parties.
Political scientist Alejandro Boyco, from the IEP, told El Comercio that many regional actors chose to join national parties as a strategy of political survival in the face of the possibility of being left out of the 2026 race. According to his analysis, this change does not necessarily imply a real strengthening of the parties, but rather an instrumental move by candidates seeking to preserve their place in the electoral contest.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with assistance from artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited outlet. El Notero did not conduct its own reporting on this fact.
