Voters in Peru head to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president and members of Congress.
Sunday’s election comes amid a surge in violent crime and corruption, and there is currently no clear favorite candidate among disaffected voters.
A successful candidate needs more than 50% of the vote to win outright and given the dissatisfaction among voters, it is highly likely that a runoff will be held in June.
Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time (1200 GMT), with about 27 million people eligible to vote.
Voting will close at 5pm (2200 GMT), with preliminary results from the country’s election monitors expected soon after.
some of them are in dispute
There are 35 names on the ballot, including Keiko Fujimori, a conservative former congressman and daughter of the late President Alberto Fujimori.
He has vowed to crack down on crime, but also defended laws that experts say make it difficult to prosecute criminals.
His fourth bid for the post of President is on Sunday.
Rafael López Aliaga, the conservative former mayor of the Peruvian capital Lima, is also in controversy and has proposed the construction of prisons in the Amazon region to allow members of the judiciary to hide their identities with the intention of protecting judges from criminal gangs.
He has also stressed on expelling the foreigners living in the country illegally.
Popular comedian Carlos Alvarez is also campaigning on a tough anti-crime platform.
Edited by: Jennifer Cimino Gonzalez