Peru Court Keeps Chief on López Aliaga Case

Peru’s electoral court has refused a request by the Renovación Popular party to remove its president, Roberto Burneo, from decisions on party leader Rafael López Aliaga, reports said on Thursday 12 November 2026. Renovación Popular is the party López Aliaga leads, and the dispute bears on who will run Lima, Peru’s capital.

What the Court Decided

The full bench of the National Jury of Elections (JNE), Peru’s top electoral court, declared the party’s request “improcedente”, a Spanish legal term for dismissed as unfounded, and closed the file, according to RPP, a Lima radio network, and Infobae, a Latin American news site. It ruled the same way on a parallel request to remove justice Gunther Gonzales Barrón, RPP reported.

The party had argued that a criminal complaint against its leader made Burneo too involved to decide on the proclamation of results (the formal declaration of winners) and the handing over of credentials, Infobae reported. The court replied that no case on López Aliaga was pending before it, and that the party had not said expressly which legal grounds applied, according to RPP.

The JNE’s public legal office filed that complaint on 30 October against López Aliaga and former presidential candidate Carlos Álvarez, alleging harassment and coercion against Burneo, Infobae reported. The court said the legal office defends the institution, not the personal interests of its members, so the complaint cannot be read as a personal feud between the candidate and the head of the JNE.

One justice, Gonzales Barrón, wrote a minority opinion, arguing the request was moot because the full bench had already set a general position on hidden re-elections of mayors, Infobae said. The other three justices, Maisch Molina, Torres Cortez and Oyarce Yuzzelli, backed the majority ruling, Infobae said.

Why the Dispute Matters

The fight is about who will run Lima in the next municipal term. In a recent ruling the JNE decided by three votes to two that a first councillor (the top council candidate on a party list) who was mayor in the previous term cannot take the mayor’s office again, even by succession, according to Infobae.

Under that ruling, Resolution 4557-2026-JNE, Lima’s mayoral credential goes to second councillor Jeanette Alonzo rather than López Aliaga, who ran as first councillor on the party’s list, Infobae reported. Burneo said that the decision follows Article 194 of the Constitution, which bars immediate re-election of mayors, according to El Peruano, the government’s official gazette, on 10 November.

Renovación Popular filed a request on 10 November to reverse the ruling, or to apply it only from the next elections, arguing that the rules changed after voters went to the polls, Infobae said. The court’s secretary general, Yessica Clavijo, told RPP Noticias, a radio news programme, that the court would decide “in the shortest possible time”, Infobae reported.

What Prediction Markets Say

Polymarket, a prediction market where users trade real money on outcomes, prices Rafael López Aliaga at 3.8% in its “Lima Mayoral Election Winner” market (12 November 2026, 2:00 p.m. ET, 19:00 UTC). The whole market has had US$798,301 traded, and his contract US$232,974.

The market’s rules say it resolves to the candidate who becomes the next mayor of Lima as a result of the election, and it is still trading although its listed end date was 5 October. A price is a bet, not a forecast, and a thinly traded contract can move on small trades; no single trigger for the price was reported.

Why we show this: prediction markets turn real-money bets into a live probability that moves within minutes of the news, which is why investors, campaigns and newsrooms in the United States now follow them closely. We show them next to polls and official results, never instead of them.

What Happens Next

The court says it will rule on the party’s request as soon as possible and will soon issue a second review of more than 1,000 proclamation records, Clavijo said, as Infobae reported on 11 November. No date has been announced for either decision.

What Is Not Known

The court has not given a date for its decision on the party’s request to reverse the ruling. The criminal complaint is an allegation, and we could not find a response to it from López Aliaga or Álvarez.

We could not open the text of the ruling itself on the court’s website, so the details rest on two news reports that agree. The vote split behind the ruling comes from Infobae alone.

What It Means for You

The ruling does not decide who becomes Lima’s mayor, because that turns on the earlier ruling and the pending appeal. For anyone dealing with Lima’s city hall, the earlier ruling remains in force unless the court reverses it.

For US readers following Peru, the court is standing by its own ruling while the appeal is open. Our earlier report on the dispute is here, and the wider coverage is on our Peru news page.

More: Peru news in English, every day from The Rio Times.

Sources: National Jury of Elections (JNE); RPP, 12 Nov 2026; Infobae, 12 Nov 2026; Infobae, 11 Nov 2026; El Peruano, 10 Nov 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Renovación Popular want Burneo removed?

It cited the JNE’s criminal complaint against López Aliaga for alleged harassment and coercion against Burneo, saying it harmed his impartiality. The court rejected that argument.

What did the electoral court answer?

It said no case on López Aliaga was pending before it. It also said the complaint is not a personal feud with Burneo.

Can López Aliaga still become Lima’s mayor?

Under the court’s earlier ruling, the mayor’s credential goes to second councillor Jeanette Alonzo. The party’s appeal against that ruling is pending.

What is hidden re-election?

It is a former mayor running as first councillor to take back the mayor’s office by succession, which the court says Article 194 of the Constitution forbids. The court ruled this way earlier this month.