The plenum of National Electoral Jury (JNE) issued Resolution No. 0745-2025-JNE declaring the primaries invalid Popular action (AP) for the next general elections in 2026. This ruling not only leaves one of the country’s oldest and most emblematic parties out of the running, but also raises fundamental questions about transparency, internal democracy and monitoring of electoral processes in Peru.
The process that triggered this situation goes back to the internal primaries of Popular action, takes place in delegate mode. On November 30, 2025, members elected their representatives, delegates, who would be tasked with selecting candidates for the general election on December 7. However, warning signs emerged in the first phase: various activists and candidates warned of serious irregularities and denounced the manipulation of the process.
At the center of the controversy were the actions of Cinthya Pajuelo ChavezPresident of the National Electoral Committee (CNE) of Popular Action. Complaints collected by the JNE revealed that Pajuelo replaced 28 elected delegates in various constituencies – such as Áncash, Cajamarca, Cusco, Huancavelica, Lima Norte, Lima Centro, Lima Oeste, Lima Provincias, Loreto, Junín and Madre de Dios – with other members who were not democratically elected. In addition, delegates whose proclamation was never made official by the CNE were included.
One of the most serious aspects was that Pajuelo was the only one who had access to the keys to the security system. Registration of area codes (REP) the ONPEwhich allowed him to change the delegate list without external control. As a result, the process lost transparency and distanced itself from the basic principles of any electoral process: legitimacy, authentic participation and respect for the will of the party base.
On December 4th the ONPE published the official list of winning delegates including irregular substitutions. In the face of protests from expelled militants and delegates, the official reaction was blunt: there was no authority to intervene in the party’s internal affairs because the ONPE was limited to recording the information transmitted by the CKD. This position left hundreds of members without effective mechanisms to reverse a clearly fraudulent situation.
The situation exploded on December 7th, the day of the candidate election. Legally elected delegates were unable to exercise their right to vote, while others – including irregular delegates – refrained from participating in protest. Thus, the voting was carried out with a faulty register and without legitimacy, which compromised the authenticity of the entire process.
The examination of the case by the JNE It was exhausting. The files collected after the challenges showed a clear pattern: the inclusion as delegates of citizens who were never elected by the affiliated base. Thus, the electoral body found that all subsequent actions, including the election of candidates, were contaminated from the outset and violated the principles of internal democracy and due process.
The highest electoral body recalled its constitutional duty to ensure that the votes reflect this authentic, free and spontaneous will of citizens, and that the results are the exact reflection of this will. In addition, the law grants the JNE the power to declare null and void any procedure in the event of fraud, bribery, intimidation, violence or any vice contrary to electoral law.
He Popular action case was conclusive: the National Directorate for Supervision and Electoral Processes JNE It turned out that 100% of the polling stations had citizens who had not been elected as delegates. This irregularity significantly compromised the legitimacy and transparency of the process, as the authentic will of the party was not respected and the right to political participation of thousands of activists was violated.
He JNE He also emphasized that internal democracy is not a simple formalism, but a fundamental principle of all parties. Manipulating the register and changing the results threatens institutional legitimacy and affects the credibility of the political system in the eyes of citizens.
Another key point of the Decision of the jury was the material and legal impossibility of repeating the primaries. The country’s electoral calendar is mandatory and exclusionary; Reversing the process or calling for new primaries would have meant breaking legal deadlines and undermining the legal certainty and stability of national elections.
So, The JNE voted by a majority to declare all Popular Action primaries null and void. at national level. Therefore, the party is unable to field a candidate for President, Senate, Chamber of Deputies or Andean Parliament in the 2026 general elections. The decision implies that one of Peru’s oldest and most representative parties will not be present at the country’s largest democratic event.
However, the decision was not unanimous. Two justices cast a minority voteRecalling that the challenges related to the formation of the list of delegates should have been resolved during the list registration and that only numerical discrepancies in the counting of votes can be a reason for the invalidity of primaries. From this perspective, legality control should occur later and not in the primary phases.
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