Peru: Government Structure

Peru's political system is built around a presidential republic under the Constitution of 1993, which replaced an earlier 1979 charter during the government of Alberto Fujimori. The president serves as both head of state and head of government, elected by popular vote to a five-year term. A constitutional amendment passed in 2000, following the end of the Fujimori era, barred immediate re-election, and two vice presidents are elected alongside the president, though they hold no independent constitutional powers unless called upon to assume the presidency.

Legislative power belongs to the Congress of the Republic, which returned to a bicameral structure under a constitutional reform enacted ahead of the 2026 elections, replacing the single-chamber Congress that had operated since the 1990s. The restored Congress consists of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies, both elected through proportional representation for five-year terms alongside the presidency. Congress is responsible for passing laws, approving the national budget, and overseeing the executive branch, including the power to censure ministers or, in serious cases, remove a sitting president.

The judiciary operates as a hierarchical system of courts culminating in the Supreme Court, whose sixteen judges hear the country's most significant civil, criminal, and constitutional cases. Peru is a unitary state, meaning national institutions hold ultimate authority over regional and local governments, although regions and municipalities elect their own officials and administer many public services directly. Political power is distributed across a multi-party system, with no single party historically holding a dominant, lasting majority.