“Don’t vote for the same scoundrels as always,” Father Enrique Campos Camasca told his congregation in Sapallanga, urging voters not to sell their votes for gifts, promises or other inducements. Peru’s local elections take place Sunday, 4 October, with voters choosing people for 13,148 posts across the country. They won’t choose a president or member of Congress; the power at stake is local and regional.
A warning about bought votes
Campos used the Spanish word sinvergüenzas and urged worshippers not to support “the same people who keep damaging our land, our country.” He said voters knew which candidates loved their land, linking that choice to honesty and respect for local customs and faith. His warning focused on voters’ choices. The candidates and officials he criticized remained unnamed.
“Let us not be bought with a little present, a little gift, a promise. Never,” Campos said. He told worshippers to take responsibility for their decisions: “Then don’t go around complaining when you voted.” He said he would ask on 11 October whether the winners deserved their victories. The sermon framed the ballot as a test of voter judgment, though it didn’t identify any candidate, party or sitting official.
The parish broadcast the Mass live on its Facebook page. Infobae reported Campos’s remarks on 30 September 2026; RPP, El Comercio and the weekly Caretas also carried them that day. The report didn’t specify the date of the Mass, beyond saying it took place before the vote. By 30 September, no reaction from the Archdiocese of Huancayo or electoral authorities had been reported.
The posts and the watchers
According to ONPE figures published by the official gazette El Peruano, voters will fill 25 regional governor posts, 196 provincial mayor posts, 1,696 district mayor posts and 9,118 district councillor posts. Polls are scheduled to open at 7 a.m. and close at 5 p.m., according to ONPE figures cited by Infobae. The count will determine who occupies those local offices, with results for Sapallanga and Junín expected from ONPE after polls close on 4 October.
Peru’s public prosecution service lists vote-buying first among the electoral crimes it will monitor. More than 6,800 prosecutors are to be on duty nationwide, while observers from the Organization of American States will also monitor the vote. The article reports enforcement and observation, but no community-led effort, mutual aid initiative or direct action in response to vote-buying. It also gives no details about how prosecution or monitoring will affect voters beyond that stated mandate.
A local ballot, not a national one
One Lima race already had a clear poll leader in the article: a linked report said former Mayor López Aliaga led the race to run Lima by 12 points. That’s one contest, not a result for Sapallanga or Junín. ONPE’s count there was still expected after voting.
The article said the Catholic Church still carries weight in Peru. Pope Leo XIV, a former bishop of Chiclayo in northern Peru, was due to visit from 11 to 16 November. Campos’s sermon invoked local land, customs and faith, but he named no local officials, and the report identified no response from church or electoral authorities. Voters must choose among candidates for thousands of local posts; the sermon’s challenge is whether inducements and familiar political names will shape that choice.