That year, Luis Castaneda Lossiofrom Unidad Nacional, was elected mayor of Lima with 47.8% of the valid votes. Four years later, Susana Villaran He won with 38.4% and, in 2014, Castañeda won the position again with 50.7%. In 2018, Jorge Muñoz he got 36%.
The lower concentration observed in the last election is also evident when adding the votes of the two groups with the greatest preferences. In the 2006 elections, the first two places (National Unity and National Restoration) represented 62.7% of the valid votes and in 2010 this indicator marked its highest level, when Fuerza Social and the Popular Christian Party grouped together 76% of the valid votes in the city. In 2022, Renovación Popular and Podemos Perú barely reached 51.7% (see table).
The lower concentration of electoral preferences is also evident when adding the votes of the two most voted options. In the 2022 electoral process, Renovación Popular and Podemos Perú, the two parties with the most votes, concentrated only 51.7% of the valid votes, compared to the 76% that Fuerza Social and the PPC added in 2010. In 2006, the first two places (Unidad Nacional and Restauración Nacional) obtained 62.7% of the valid votes.
This fact occurred even though the number of applicants was reduced. In 2022, eight candidates presented themselves, the lowest number since 2006. For the elections this Sunday, October 4, on the contrary, participation will register a record so far this century: 25 political organizations will compete for the position.
Territorial fragmentation
The number of districts in which the elected mayor of Lima was the candidate with the most votes also fell sharply in the last election. Renovación Popular, with López Aliaga, was the party with the most votes in 21 of the 43 jurisdictions, mainly in central Lima and modern Lima. The figure contrasts with that of 2006, when Castañeda Lossio was the candidate with the most votes in all the districts of the capital (and in 21 of these he obtained more than 50% of the valid votes). This figure is similar to his return in 2014, when he won in 41 districts and obtained more than half of the preferences in another 21 constituencies.
In 2018, although Jorge Muñoz won in 40 districts, only in 12 of them did he win with more than 50% of the valid votes.
In closer elections, such as those in 2010, Fuerza Social and the Popular Christian Party won in 22 and 21 districts, respectively. Villarán was the most voted in northern Lima, eastern Lima and large districts of southern Lima. However, only Lourdes Flores Nano’s candidacy obtained more than half of the valid votes in 11 districts.
Could political fragmentation be accentuated in this Sunday’s elections? For Silvia Guevara, a specialist in electoral law, some regulatory factors favor a greater offer of organizations and candidates. This greater offer, he points out, can disperse the vote.
“In Metropolitan Lima, candidates can present their list to the province, but they are not obliged to present it in the 43 districts. This leads to the fact that, in any case, there is a difference in the participation of political organizations that do not manage to have representatives in all the districts,” he explains.
