The 2026 Peruvian general elections

This panel on the 2026 Peruvian general elections, held after the first round on 12 April, brings together expert analysts to examine the electoral process, its central themes, the first‑round results, and the potential outcomes of a possible second round.

Speakers:

Gonzalo Banda Lazarte is a Doctoral Researcher at University College London’s Institute of the Americas. His research develops a diagnostic theory of Peru’s political crisis and is funded by the Bicentennial Generation Scholarship of the Peruvian Government. He holds a Master of Public Policy from the London School of Economics as a Chevening Scholar, and an MSc in Political Science from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

Viviana Baraybar-Hidalgo is a Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. She holds a DPhil in Politics and an MPhil in Comparative Government from the University of Oxford. Her research combines experimental and qualitative methods to examine how citizens evaluate undemocratic behaviour, including corruption, power grabs, and political violence, with a comparative focus on Latin America and Europe.

Maria Luisa Puig is Eurasia Group’s Latin America Director, leading the coverage of Chile, Colombia, and Peru. She holds master’s degrees in comparative politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and in Latin American Studies from Stanford University. She earned her bachelor’s degree in communications from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

Chaired by Paulo Drinot, Professor of Latin American History, UCL Institute of the Americas.