Castillo had secured 18.6% of the votes, while 14.5% went to Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned former president Alberto Fujimori, according to a fast count by the polls.

The official results are expected to start coming in at 11:30 pm local time (04:30 GMT Monday).

Pedro Castillo was a teacher's union leader during the 2017 strike, which sought to increase salaries, pay the social debt, repeal the Law of the Public Teacher Career, and increase the budget in the Education sector.

In 2002, Castillo unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Anguía with Possible Peru.[12] He served as a leading member of the party in Cajamarca from 2005 till the party's dissolution in 2017.[13]

In October 2020, he announced his presidential bid in the general election with Free Peru.

He was formally nominated for the presidency on 6 December 2020, confirming his ticket, which includes attorney Dina Boluarte and former Governor of Junín, Vladimir Cerrón, although the latter was disqualified by the National Jury of Elections due to serving a prison sentence for corruption since 2019.

During the campaign, Castillo declared that he would deactivate the Constitutional Court of Peru because, in his words, “today it serves to defend corruption at macro scale.”