Deeply unpopular Peruvian president calls for general elections in April 2026

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peruvian President Dina Boluarte said Tuesday the country will hold general elections one year from now in an effort to end years of instability.

The deeply unpopular 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, Boularte did not say if she would be a contender. Boluarte assumed power in Peru in 2022 to complete the term of then-President Pedro Castillo, who was removed from office just two years into his five-year term after attempting to dissolve the legislature to avoid his own removal.

She said the upcoming elections will be “democratic, clean, transparent and orderly.”

Boluarte has a 93% disapproval rating, according to a national poll conducted by Datum Internacional in March. Her term ends on July 28, 2026.

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 39-year-old lead singer of the cumbia band Armonia 10. He was fatally shot when assailants attacked his band’s tour bus after a concert in Lima.

In reaction to the Flores killing, Boluarte on March 19 declared a state of emergency in the capital and ordered the deployment of soldiers to help police address the surge of violence. That same day, opposition lawmakers requested a vote of no confidence against the interior minister.

Boluarte’s government previously had decreed a state of emergency from September to December in an attempt to stem the violence.

Authorities reported 2,057 killings in 2024, up from 1,506 in 2023.