Three main candidates participated in the Peruvian presidential elections of 10 June 1962: Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, founder and leader of the APRA, future president Fernando Belaúnde, and former dictator Manuel A. Odría.

[citation needed] Promising a "New Peru", Pérez Godoy pushed through a 24% increase in the budget and decreed new taxes to pay for it, including a one dollar-a-ton levy on anchovies that provoked a strike and threatened to close down the thriving fishmeal industry.

And when he refused to approve the construction of a new hospital for Vargas Prada's Air Force and six new ships for Torres Matos' national steamship line, the other junta members turned on him.

Politically, Pérez Godoy was generally in favor of carrying out the promised June elections even if they should result in a victory for the leftist-turned-moderate APRA Party of Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre.

Warned that his comrades-in-arms were determined to remove him, Pérez Godoy tried to no avail to rally support among provincial military commanders and civilians working toward the new presidential elections in June.