These are José Antonio Barrientos, in Quicacha (Arequipa); Rómulo Suyco in Lari (Arequipa); Régulo López in Recta (Amazonas); Víctor Mendoza in Luis Carranza (Ayacucho); and Alexánder Vásquez in Elías Soplín Vargas (San Martín).
Except for Elías Soplín Vargas – with 17 thousand voters – these districts each have fewer than 1,600 electors.
These candidates will obtain the mayoralty without having to face rivals at the polls, unless null and blank votes exceed two-thirds of the total cast. This, in fact, already happened to one of the sole candidates in the past: Rómulo Suyco was also the only candidate in the Arequipa district of Lari in the 2022 municipal elections but, even without competition, he obtained only 15.22% of the valid votes, compared to 84.78% blank and null votes.
If the minimum number of votes is not reached, the law provides for a complementary election to be held, while the outgoing authority remains in office under a mandate extension, explains electoral legislation expert Silvia Guevara.
Explore the profile, electoral trajectory, and party history of the sole candidates in the following visualization:
Sole candidacies and low competition: one in six districts have three or fewer candidates
The absence of competition is not limited to these five cases. In 55 districts in Peru, there are only two political options for the elections on October 4. In another 229, there are only three registered lists. Together, almost 300 districts — representing one in six municipalities in the country — offer citizens three or fewer voting alternatives.
This scarcity coexists with districts of small population, with a high concentration of candidates per inhabitant. In San Joaquín (Yauyos), with a registry of 249 electors and a single polling station, 28 candidates registered (4 for mayor and 24 for councilors). 11% of the population of this district aspires to a public office.
For Guevara, having two or three electoral options is not negative per se, as long as there is plurality. She indicates that the legal cap of 30% invited candidates on the lists hinders the presence of political organizations in more constituencies. “Many times they do not have enough affiliates in that constituency, so they do not run,” she explains.
Javier Albán, an expert in electoral law, agrees that the problem is not the number of candidates, but their ability to represent the interests of the population.
Read more Quini 6 LIVE today, draw 3402 on Sunday, August 23: how to play and where to watch live
“There can be a competitive election with two candidates, as long as both represent to some extent part of what the population demands,” he explains.
On the other side: The electoral oversupply
At the opposite extreme, the subnational map shows a dispersion in the number of candidacies at the regional, provincial, and district levels. Some regions approach 20 candidates for regional governor, regardless of their population size. Tacna, for example, matches Arequipa and Lima with 19 candidates for GORE, while Lambayeque and Piura top the national list with 20 candidates each.
At the provincial level, Metropolitan Lima leads the number of options for mayor with 27 registered lists, followed by Arequipa with 20 and Maynas with 19. Provinces such as Chiclayo (18), Barranca, Huaral, Ilo, and Trujillo (all with 17) also lead the ranking.
The megadistricts and the regional record of lists
This fragmentation, however, reaches its critical point in the capital. The districts of Metropolitan Lima with the largest electoral population exceed 20 candidates for district mayor. San Juan de Lurigancho tops the ranking with 24 candidates, followed by Ate (23), Los Olivos (23), Villa María del Triunfo (21), Carabayllo (20), and San Juan de Miraflores (20). These figures contrast with the Latin American average, which ranges between four and six candidates per municipal constituency.
South America: Peru among the countries with the most elected subnational authorities
The country is divided into 26 regional-level constituencies (the 24 departments and El Callao), divided into 196 provinces and 1,892 districts. Each of these jurisdictions is headed by an authority elected by popular vote. Besides Ecuador, Peru is the only South American country with three hierarchical levels of subnational government.
The regional comparison also reveals a high proliferation of political subdivisions: Colombia, with 20 million more inhabitants than Peru, has 1,102 municipalities; Chile has 345 communes. Despite this density, in 2022 Congress enacted Law 31567, which declared the creation of 44 additional districts a national interest.
With almost two thousand top-level subnational authorities elected by direct vote, Peru ranks as the third country in the region with the highest number of subnational authorities, surpassed only by Brazil and Argentina.
Read more New Pension 65 with increase: beneficiaries and when the S/ 700 are paid
- Mass resignations of candidates: These are the 63 cases of disguised reelection nationwide
- 2026 Elections: more than 25 lists could compete for the Lima Mayor’s Office after a key milestone in the schedule
- President of the JNE on mayors seeking reelection as councilors or aldermen: “There is no prohibition for them to participate”
